To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................. 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................. 12
PROCESS........................................................................................................................ 13
NORTH CAROLINA STRATEGIC PLAN .................................................................... 16
SUMMARY........................................................................................................................ .. 17
HOMELESS PERSONS..................................................................................................................... 23
PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS................................................................................................. 39
HIGH PRIORITY RENTERS ............................................................................................................ 47
HIGH PRIORITY HOMEOWNERS.................................................................................................. 55
MEDIUM PRIORITY RENTERS...................................................................................................... 65
MEDIUM PRIORITY HOMEOWNERS........................................................................................... 72
LOW PRIORITY RENTERS ............................................................................................................. 80
HOME BUYERS......................................................................................................................... ...... 87
LOW PRIORITY HOMEOWNERS................................................................................................... 95
LOW INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDITS................................................................... 102
LEAD BASED PAINT ASSESSMENT ............................................................................ 103
BARRIERS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING................................................................... 107
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES ......................................................... 111
ANTI- POVERTY STRATEGIES ..................................................................................... 118
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE..................................................................................... 120
COORDINATION.............................................................................................................. 125
MONITORING STANDARDS.......................................................................................... 129
HOUSING MARKET ANALYSIS AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT.............................. 133
NEEDS ASSESSMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................... 134
DEMOGRAPHICS............................................................................................................. 137
ECONOMY........................................................................................................................ 144
HOMELESSNESS.............................................................................................................. 155
HOUSING OVERVIEW.................................................................................................... 164
RENTAL HOUSING.......................................................................................................... 178
HOUSING FOR HOME BUYERS ................................................................................... 199
OWNER- OCCUPIED HOUSING .................................................................................... 207
MANUFACTURED HOUSING........................................................................................ 220
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.................................................................................... 228
CONSULTATIONS ....................................................................................................... 236
3
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.......................................................................................... 239
CONTRIBUTORS.......................................................................................................... 241
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 242
APPENDIX A: North Carolina Estimated Housing Needs............................................ 242
APPENDIX B: Descriptions of Partner Programs ......................................................... 243
APPENDIX C: Removal of Regulatory Barriers............................................................ 254
APPENDIX D: Homeless Facilities Inventory ................................................................ 259
APPENDIX E: County Designations ............................................................................... 261
APPENDIX F: Summary of NC Housing Problems....................................................... 262
APPENDIX G: Summary of Condition Problems .......................................................... 263
APPENDIX H: Summary of Consolidated Plan Regional Meetings............................. 264
APPENDIX I: Summary of Needs Assessment Regional Meetings................................ 272
APPENDIX J: Needs Assessment Definitions ................................................................. 275
APPENDIX K: General Affordable Housing Definitions ............................................... 277
APPENDIX L: Analysis of Impediments and Fair Housing Plan ................................. 286
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The North Carolina Consolidated Plan 2006- 2010 serves two purposes. First, it is the
planning document that guides the Consolidated Plan partners in addressing housing and
community development needs across the state for the next five years. Second, it is a tool
that is used by the Consolidated Plan partners to inform various stakeholders -- including
the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD), state and local
officials, non- profit and advocacy organizations, and the residents of North Carolina -- of
the need for improving the living conditions for our state’s low- to- moderate income
population. The Consolidated Plan partners run programs under the four funding sources
for which HUD requires this plan: Community Development Block Grants ( CDBG)
managed by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Community
Assistance ( DCA); HOME funds managed by the North Carolina Housing Finance
Agency ( NCHFA); and Housing Opportunities for Persons with Aids ( HOPWA) and
Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG) both managed by the North Carolina Department of
Health and Human Services ( DHHS).
The plan is organized into three major parts:
The first section is the strategic plan itself, which is derived from the findings of the
Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment. The Strategic Plan outlines the
goals, objectives, and activities that the Consolidated Plan partners will undertake
and strive for over the next five years to meet the needs of North Carolina’s low- to-moderate
income citizens.
The middle section describes other regulatory requirements of the Consolidated Plan
partners and how those requirements will be addressed over the next five years.
These requirements include such directives as lead- based paint abatement, use of
low- income housing tax credits, and collaboration among the partners and with
outside organizations.
The last section of the plan, the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment,
details the housing and community development needs of low- to- moderate income
residents statewide.
In creating the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment, the Consolidated Plan
partners first studied data regarding housing conditions, availability, cost, and other
housing indicators. Additional factors were then considered: things that affect the living
standards of North Carolinians other than housing, such as access to clean water,
employment and other economic factors, and demographic changes seen in our state over
the last ten years. From this data, a picture of the needs of low- to- moderate income
North Carolinians was formed.
2
However, the picture would not be complete without qualitative data describing the
priorities and needs of North Carolinians as they themselves see them. During the fall of
2004, Consolidated Plan partner staff held fifteen meetings around the state to present the
findings of the quantitative study and determine if these match what local service
providers experienced in their communities. The meetings produced qualitative data on
the needs of residents by region. These two sets of data painted the picture of the housing
and community development needs for North Carolinians for the next five years.
eds for North Carolinians for the next five years.
The Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment identifies many areas in which
low- to- moderate income residents are lacking resources in order to live in safe, decent,
and affordable housing. Based upon this research, North Carolina has a significant need
for housing assistance for its low- income population. According to 2000 Census data,
more than 358,000 renter households and more than 497,000 owner households in North
Carolina had a housing problem. 1 Among North Carolina’s low- income population,
more than 320,000 renter households and 330,000 owner households had a housing
problem ( according to 2000 Census data). The primary problem North Carolinians
experience is cost burdening. Of all households with a housing problem across the state,
cost was the problem for 84% of renters and 21% of owners. The Consolidated Plan
partners see the alleviation of cost burdening as a major goal over the next five years for
the state’s housing programs.
Figure ES1: Percent of each population group with
housing problems.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Renter Ow ner Renter Ow ner Renter Ow ner
Extremely Low -
Income
Very Low - Income Low - Income
Cost Burdened Severely Cost Burdened Some Other Problem
In order to be most effective, and in acknowledgement of the scarce resources available
to meet the housing and community development needs across the state, available
resources must be targeted to the population most in need. Based on the findings of the
Consolidated Plan partners, the primary need for housing assistance is for those North
1 The United States Census Bureau defines a housing problem as either cost burdening, overcrowding, or
inadequate kitchen or plumbing facilities.
3
Carolinians earning below 30 percent of area median income. Due to the rising cost of
housing across the state in recent years, and income levels that are generally below
$ 10,000 per year, the ability to afford any sort of safe, decent, and sanitary housing for
this population is extremely problematic. Many of the people in this population are those
on Supplemental Security Income ( SSI), for whom the monthly stipend with which all of
life’s necessities are supposed to be provided is less than $ 600 a month. Affording a
decent apartment on such a low income is nearly impossible without some sort of
subsidy.
The data also showed that the affordability mismatch is nearly as dire for those earning
between 31 and 50 percent of median area income. Many of these residents could be
classified as the “ working poor”, earning less than eight dollars an hour. Although
income for this population is higher, Figure ES2 shows that cost burdening is not
significantly diminished from that of the extremely low income group. Therefore, a
substantial subsidy is essential to help ensure that these residents are able to find safe,
decent, and sanitary housing.
4
Figure ES2: Estimated Housing Needs
North Carolina Estimated Housing Needs
Type of Household % MFI Total Units
Needed Available Resources Total Estimated to
Meet Entire Need
0- 30% of MFI 43,296 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 865,920,000
31- 51% of MFI 11,410 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 228,200,000
Small Related
Renters
51- 80% of MFI 7,013 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 140,260,000
0- 30% of MFI 9,727 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 194,540,000
31- 51% of MFI 5,629 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 112,580,000
Large Related
Renters
51- 80% of MFI 10,118 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 202,360,000
0- 30% of MFI 19,110 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 382,200,000
31- 51% of MFI 5,733 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Elderly Renters Fund $ 114,660,000
51- 80% of MFI 1,787 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 35,740,000
0- 30% of MFI 44,557 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 891,140,000
31- 51% of MFI 13,691 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
All Other Renters Fund $ 273,820,000
51- 80% of MFI 3,586 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 71,720,000
0- 30% of MFI 79,207 CDBG, HOME, NC Housing Trust Fund $ 1,584,140,000
31- 51% of MFI 48,929 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Owner Fund $ 978,580,000
51- 80% of MFI 44,067 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 881,340,000
Foreclosure prevention is another strongly identified need. From 1998 to 2003, the
number of households statewide that filed for foreclosure tripled. According to local
service providers, this need results from the structural change in North Carolina’s
economy from one dependent on agriculture and non- durable goods manufacturing, such
as textiles, to one that focuses primarily on services and higher- end manufacturing.
Although North Carolina’s economy grew rapidly during the 1990s, decline in many
traditional industrial sectors, such as furniture, textiles, and tobacco, put a strain on many
families’ ability to afford housing.
This change in the state’s economy is not the only shift that was evident over the past ten
years. North Carolina has experienced tremendous immigration in the last decade,
primarily of three types. The first group is made of young professionals with jobs in the
state’s growing industries such as biotech and pharmaceuticals; these new residents are
drawn to the state’s urban centers because of their economic opportunities. The second
5
group is an influx of retirees looking to take advantage of North Carolina’s natural beauty
and mild climate; they are drawn to the state’s mountain or coastal regions. The third
group generally emigrates from outside the country and is looking to North Carolina as a
place for a new start to their lives. They bring hope of economic prosperity and a
willingness to work long hours in difficult jobs. These new immigrants, the families of
workers displaced from traditional industries, and all low and moderate income residents
in need of housing or community development assistance are the target groups for the
Consolidated Plan partners.
North Carolina’s homeless population has grown in recent years. A point- in- time count
taken on December 15, 2003 found 9,687 homeless persons statewide. The point- in- time
count of January 26, 2005 recorded 11,165 homeless persons in North Carolina.
Furthermore, a significant number of the state’s homeless population are children; reports
from ESG recipients indicate that at least 13% of North Carolina’s homeless persons are
children.
In the next five years, North Carolina is likely to need more rental assistance, new
construction of affordable and accessible rental housing, and rehabilitation and/ or
preservation of existing affordable housing— particularly to increase affordable and
accessible housing opportunities to those earning less than 30% of median family
income.
The primary community development need indicated by local service providers is for
clean water and appropriate wastewater disposal for residential areas, whether by public
sewer lines or repair or replacement of on- site wastewater systems. Access to clean
water is especially problematic in rural areas of our state where households must depend
on personal or community wells. Contamination, poor water quality, and the shrinking of
some aquifers have made water quality so poor in some areas that public health is
threatened. For many families repairing or replacing an on- site wastewater disposal
system is simply cost prohibitive. Failing septic systems and straight piping of waste into
streams or fields are a threat to both public and environmental health.
As stated earlier, the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment was used to create
the goals, objectives, and strategies of the strategic plan. Based on the severity of need,
the Consolidated Plan partners assigned priorities to populations differentiated by
income, tenure, and urban/ rural status. 2 Figure ES3 displays the priority assignments for
each category of household in the state.
2 For purpose of this plan, urban areas are defined as all CDBG entitlement areas in the state. A CDBG
entitlement area is a municipality or county that receives CDBG funds directly from the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development, and does not participate in the statewide Small Cities
program. These areas include two counties ( Wake and Cumberland) and 23 municipalities: Asheville,
Burlington, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Concord, Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Goldsboro,
Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, High Point, Jacksonville, Kannapolis, Lenoir, Morganton, Raleigh,
Rocky Mount, Salisbury, Wilmington, and Winston- Salem.
6
Figure ES3: Descriptions of Priority Populations
High Priority Need Medium Priority Need Lower Priority Need
Homeless Families and Individuals
Nonhomeless Persons with Special
Needs
Urban Renters Earning 0- 30% of
MFI
Rural Renters Earning 0- 50% of
MFI
Existing Urban Homeowners
Earning 0- 30% of MFI
Existing Rural Homeowners
Earning 0- 50% of MFI*
Urban Renters Earning 31- 50% of
MFI
Rural Renters Earning 51- 60% of
MFI
Existing Urban Homeowners
Earning 31- 50% of MFI
Existing Rural Homeowners
Earning 0- 50% of MFI*
Urban Renters Earning 51- 80% of
MFI
Rural Renters Earning 61- 80% of
MFI
Existing Homeowners Earning 51-
80% Median Family Income
Potential Homebuyers Earning 30-
80% of MFI whose needs are not
met by the market
* Existing Rural Homeowners are differentiated in priority by type of activity and/ or type of household ( elderly are considered high
priority, non- elderly are medium priority).
The need of each type of household will be addressed by at least one of the four
Consolidated Plan partners over the next five years. The Strategic Plan describes each
element and activity that will be utilized by the Consolidated Plan partners to address
these needs. Figure ES4, on the following page, summarizes the strategies to be
employed to address the needs for each population group by the Consolidated Plan
partners over the next five years. Additionally, the estimated dollar amount to be spent
on each activity from 2006- 2010 is provided. 3
3 These dollar amounts assume no major changes to federal funding of the Consolidated Plan partners’
programs from 2006- 2010.
7
Figure ES4: Total Funding Estimates for Each Priority
Need Category
( For a list of programs/ funding sources mentioned here, please see Appendix B. Table excludes Mortgage Revenue
Bond and Mortgage Credit Certificate financing.)
Homeless Persons Medium- priority Renters Low- priority Renters
Operating Costs for Homeless Providers $ 10,000,000 Financing of Rental Rehabilitation $ 88,020,000 Financing of Rental Rehabilitation $ 31,875,000
ESG Tax Credits, PLP, RPP, CN, RS Tax Credits, PLP, RPP, CN, RS
Supportive Services $ 800,000 Financing of New Construction $ 270,550,000 Financing of New Construction $ 99,350,000
ESG Tax Credits, RPP, CN, RS Tax Credits, RPP, HD
Emergency Shelter Construction and $ 1,000,000 subtotal $ 358,570,000 subtotal $ 131,225,000
Rehabilitation
SHDP Medium- priority Owners Homebuyers
Supportive Housing $ 8,000,000 Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 16,320,000 Individual Development Accounts $ 8,750,000
SHDP SFR, SSH, CN, RS DCA's IDA, NCHFA's IDAP
Homeless Prevention $ 5,250,000 Replacement Housing $ 14,600,000 First and Second Mortgages $ 42,600,000
ESG, HOPWA SSH, CN, RS ROM, NHLP, SHLP
subtotal $ 25,050,000 Refinancing $ 0 Downpayment Assistance $ 6,310,000
none DAP ( ADDI)
Non- Homeless Persons with Special Needs** Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure $ 10,650,000 Financing of New Construction $ 3,150,000
Rent Assistance $ 7,250,000 IF Hook- up, CN, RS HD
HOPWA, KEY subtotal $ 41,570,000 subtotal $ 60,810,000
Supportive Housing $ 8,000,000
SHDP Low- priority Owners
Operating Assistance $ 2,000,000 Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 3,905,000
HOPWA SFR, CN, RS
Supportive Services $ 300,000 Replacement Housing $ 450,000
HOPWA CN, RS
subtotal $ 17,550,000 Refinancing $ 0
none
High- priority Renters Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure $ 1,800,000
Rent Assistance $ 0 IF Hook- up, CN, RS
none subtotal $ 6,155,000
Financing of Rental Rehabilitation $ 79,243,000
CN, RS, SSH, Tax Credits, PLP, RPP
Financing of New Construction $ 235,550,000
HD, Tax Credits, RPP
subtotal $ 314,793,000
High- priority Owners
Urgent Repair $ 12,600,000
URP, SSH
Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 35,600,000
SFR, SSH, CN, RS
Replacement Housing $ 32,000,000
SSH, CN, RS
Foreclosure Prevention Activities $ 2,780,000
HPPP, MRB
Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure $ 25,100,000
IF Hook- up, CN, RS
subtotal $ 108,080,000
Total High- priority Funding $ 465,473,000 Total Medium- priority Funding $ 400,140,000 Total Low- priority Funding $ 198,190,000
** Includes the following:
Persons with disabilities
Low- income elderly persons
Persons with HIV/ AIDS
Table excludes Mortgage Revenue Bond and Mortgage Credit Certificate financing.
High Medium Low
8
The Consolidated Plan partners plan to target the largest amount of funding to high-priority
needs – over $ 465 million dollars from 2006- 2010 in federal, state, and private
funds. Medium and low priority populations and activities will also be addressed, with
an expected $ 400 million to be spent to address medium priority needs and $ 198 million
to address low priority needs.
Figure ES4 depicts the priority of needs ( high, medium, or low) among populations in the
state as determined through the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment, ranked
according to severity and prevalence of need, and the allocation of funding. Although the
Consolidated Plan partner agencies attempt to match funding levels to priority of needs in
the state, they must also balance other considerations. These include:
· The amounts of various funding sources and the federal and state regulations
governing the permitted uses of these funds.
· The capability and willingness of partners around the state to undertake various
housing or community development activities.
· Continuity of programs established when priorities were different.
Funding levels of federal programs have perhaps the greatest impact in creating a
mismatch between need and dollars allocated. For example, the ESG program
exclusively serves the high- priority population of the very low income homeless and the
Mortgage Revenue Bond ( MRB) program assists the low- priority category of moderate
income first time homebuyers. Yet, in 2004, the ESG program for North Carolina
received only a $ 2.3 million allocation from HUD while the MRB program was able to
access $ 160 million from tax- exempt bond sales, for mortgages over approximately the
same period. None of the funds from the MRB program can be used to assist the
homeless – or to do anything but provide mortgages with a shallow interest subsidy to
qualifying buyers – but the relative funding levels of these two programs results in more
funding going toward a low- priority activity.
Regulatory requirements also restrict use of various funding sources. For example:
· Mortgage Credit Certificate ( MCC) and Mortgage Revenue Bond ( MRB) funds
must be used for homeownership.
· Equity from Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits ( LIHTC) and State tax
credits can only assist in rental development and rehabilitation.
· Community Development Block Grant ( CDBG) funds cannot be used for the
construction of permanent housing ( although infrastructure supporting permanent
housing is permitted). CDBG also cannot be used for rent assistance, another
high priority need.
· HOME funds cannot be used for the construction of homeless shelters, nor for
rent assistance lasting longer than two years.
· American Dream Downpayment Initiative ( ADDI) funds must be used on
homeownership.
9
· Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS ( HOPWA) funds must serve
households or individuals with HIV or AIDS.
· Emergency Shelter Grant ( ESG) funding must serve homeless populations.
Readers will notice that Homebuyers fall into the Low Priority category in Figure ES3.
They will also notice that, of the funding sources discussed in Figure ES4, $ 60.81 million
is proposed to enable low- income households to purchase homes. This is 5.7% of the
funds in Figure ES4, and 23.1% of the funds about which the State has discretion. ( The
State has discretion about using HOME, CDBG, and funds appropriated by the General
Assembly for either high, medium, or low priority activities. The activities funded by
ESG, HOPWA, MRB funds, MCC funds, Duke Power funds, and Tax Credit equity are
limited enough that the state does not have the option to redirect those funds toward other
activities in a different priority category.)
Readers will also notice that $ 25.05 million is dedicated to serving homeless populations.
While this is only 2.4% of the funds reflected in Figure ES4, it is worth noting that an
indeterminate amount of the funds serving high priority renters ( rental rehabilitation and
new construction) also serve homeless populations, and a very large percent of the Urgent
Repair funds and Foreclosure Prevention funds for high priority homeowners prevent
homelessness in households that are at great risk of becoming homeless.
Finally, readers will notice that $ 17.55 million in Figure ES4 is identified as serving non-homeless
households with special needs. However, there are other programs that serve
this population but cannot be labeled as specifically for non- homeless households with
special needs. For example, NCHFA limits its Urgent Repair program, a program of $ 10
million, to households where at least one member has special needs ( either is elderly or
disabled). The program is not specifically included in the Special Needs section because
it is primarily considered a homeowner repair program. Another example is the Scattered
Site Housing program from DCA. DCA plans to spend up to $ 55 million on housing
rehabilitation and replacement over the next five years. More than likely, the majority of
these residents will be either elderly or be categorized as special needs. However, since a
special need is not mandated for the household to be included in the program, the activity
has been listed as targeting high and medium priority homeowners. In addition
NCHFA’s Urgent Repair program and the programs identified in the table as serving
special needs populations, the Agency also requires that 10% of the LIHTC units have
accessible design ( utilizing approximately $ 79.24 million in investment). These units
benefit some number of households with special needs, but the number is unknown.
The primary strategy to address homelessness will continue to be the provision of
operating funds to local homeless shelter providers through the ESG program. Although
ESG funding has more flexibility than the state is utilizing, funding for daily operations is
in high demand, so the ESG will continue to be used for that need. However, recognizing
needs other than operating assistance, the ESG program will provide over $ 1,000,000
over the next five years to supportive services and homeless prevention. NCHFA,
10
through its Supportive Housing Development Program ( SHDP), will provide funds for
emergency shelter construction and rehabilitation and for construction of new supportive
housing developments.
The SHDP will also provide approximately $ 8 million for non- homeless persons with
special needs, 4 also a high- priority population. The Consolidated Plan partners will also
assist these residents by providing rent assistance through one of two programs: the
HOPWA program and the KEY program, a collaboration of NCHFA and the North
Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. HOPWA will also help persons
with special needs by providing over $ 2,000,000 in funds from 2006- 2010 for operating
assistance for supportive housing developments and supportive services for persons with
HIV/ AIDS.
Renters will be assisted primarily through the financing of new construction of rental
units to meet the needs of low- income residents. The financing and subsidy of these
developments will come from NCHFA’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program,
NCHFA’s Rental Production Program, and DCA’s Housing Development program. In
addition, DCA and NCHFA over the next five years will target over $ 200 million to
rehabilitation of rental units occupied by low- to- moderate residents through various
programs.
!
The Consolidated Plan partners will also consider low- to- moderate homeowners an
important target population. Improving the housing stock through comprehensive
rehabilitation or replacement will be the primary method the Consolidated Plan partners
will use to address the needs of qualifying homeowners. Elderly residents will be
considered high priority for rehabilitation or replacement of their home. When
emergencies arise, NCHFA’s Urgent Repair program and DCA’s Scattered Site Housing
program will provide funds for emergency repairs in order to prevent residents from
having to leave their homes and possibly becoming homeless. DCA expects to provide
over $ 35 million to either install new public water and/ or wastewater lines, install
connections to existing public lines, or repair or replace on- site systems. Residents
suffering from poor water quality, negligible water supply, and/ or failing septic systems,
creating a danger to public health, will be considered a high priority and will receive the
majority of the funding. Furthermore, NCHFA expects to devote over $ 2.5 million to
foreclosure prevention activities to further stem the tide against potential homelessness.
The Consolidated Plan partners will also address homebuyers whose needs are not served
by the conventional real estate market, though serving this population is considered a low
priority. The majority of funding for this population will come in the form of first and
4 Persons with special needs are defined as persons with disabilities, low- income elderly persons, and
persons with HIV/ AIDS.
11
second mortgages from NCHFA. Both NCHFA and DCA will participate in the
Individual Development Account program for first- time homebuyers, providing financial
literacy, homebuyer education training, and down payment assistance for qualifying
applicants. NCHFA will also provide down payment assistance from the federal
American Dream Downpayment Initiative funds. Finally, DCA will provide up to $ 3.15
million in funds to help lower the cost of new single family housing construction for low-to-
moderate income residents.
"
The Strategic Plan also addresses other strategies than those outlined in Figure ES4. DCA
will implement numerous community development strategies, such as capacity building
and development of human capital, aimed at improving the community fabric and social
cohesiveness necessary to keep neighborhoods thriving. Furthermore, DCA and the
Commerce Finance Center will continue to implement economic development activities
through CDBG funds, providing and retaining good- paying jobs in our state’s rural areas
that have been hardest by the recent economic downturn. NCHFA will continue its Low
Income Housing Tax Credit program ( included in Figure ES4), as well as efforts to lower
the incidence of lead poisoning from lead- based paint. The Consolidated Plan partners
have identified a number of barriers to affordable housing, as well as goals and objectives
to help eliminate those barriers and ease these unnecessary burdens keeping decent,
affordable housing elusive in many of our communities statewide.
The North Carolina Consolidated Plan 2006- 2010 serves as a blueprint to addressing the
housing and community development needs of low- to- moderate income North
Carolinians. Assuredly, the limited resources of the Consolidated Plan partners are not
sufficient to eradicate all of these needs. However, the partners feel certain that by
meeting the goals and objectives of this plan, significant strides will be made to improve
the lives of many of our state’s most needy residents.
12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Consolidated Plan partners are four agencies that work together to improve housing,
economic, and living conditions for North Carolina’s low- income population. They are
the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance ( a division of the North Carolina
Department of Commerce), the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, the North
Carolina Office of Economic Opportunity, and the AIDS Care Unit of the North Carolina
Department of Health and Human Services. Following is listed the directors of the
Consolidated Plan partners, whose leadership and vision were a driving force in the
writing of this plan.
Evelyn Foust, HIV/ STD Prevention and Care Branch Head, North Carolina Department
of Health and Human Services
Bob Kucab, Director, North Carolina Housing Finance Agency
Gloria Nance- Sims, Director, North Carolina Division of Community Assistance
Lawrence Wilson, Chief, Office of Economic Opportunity
13
PROCESS
Although the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance, located within the state
Department of Commerce, is designated as the lead agency for this plan, it is a genuinely
collaborative effort of the partners – the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, the
North Carolina Office of Economic Opportunity and the AIDS Care Unit of the North
Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The strong partnership, mutual
respect, and dedication to a combined effort to improve the lives of all North Carolinians
truly made the consolidated planning process a worthwhile endeavor. A summary of
each agency and its focus follows.
The Division of Community Assistance: The Division of Community Assistance
( DCA) provides aid to North Carolina's local governments and nonprofit community
organizations in the areas of community development, growth management, economic
development, and public management through the Community Development Block Grant
( CDBG) program, the Office of Urban Development, and through direct technical
assistance to local governments. The federally funded Community Development Block
Grant program provides funds to local governments for community and economic
development to benefit low- and moderate- income people. Typical projects may include
housing rehabilitation, new affordable housing, neighborhood infrastructure
improvements such as installation of water and sewer lines, adaptive reuse of older
buildings, and small business development. Awarding of grants in the Community
Revitalization category, which includes the Concentrated Needs and Revitalization
Strategies programs, is a competitive process. All other grant categories are awarded
through a non- competitive process.
The new Office of Urban Development houses the state’s Main Street Program, Small
Towns Initiative, and Urban Redevelopment programs. The Main Street Program helps
to strengthen North Carolina's downtowns as a focal point for community life and
economic activity. Main Street staff works with communities, local businesses and state
agencies to strengthen downtown revitalization efforts. The Small Towns Initiative,
funded by a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds foundation, provides technical assistance
and design planning for communities wishing to grow their downtown business district as
a way to spur economic development, but may be too small or not yet developed enough
for the Main Street program. The Urban Redevelopment program provides grants of up
to $ 1,000,000, using de- programmed CDBG Economic Development funds, for large-scale
redevelopment projects in rural downtowns.
The Community Planning Program has staff in seven regional offices to assist local
governments and community organizations with a variety of tasks, including: strategic
planning, growth management planning and ordinances, capital improvement planning,
goal setting, program development, and intergovernmental planning and coordination.
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency: Formed in 1973 by the General
Assembly, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency exists to create affordable
14
housing opportunities for North Carolinians whose needs are not met by the market. It
creates these opportunities in a variety of ways, ranging from helping nonprofit
organizations, local governments, and for- profit entities develop affordable homes and
apartments to providing low- cost mortgages for first- time home buyers. It operates
federal and state housing programs including the Mortgage Revenue Bond program, the
Housing Credit Program, and the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund.
The HIV/ STD Prevention and Care Branch: The mission of the HIV/ STD Prevention
and Care Branch is to reduce and eventually eliminate morbidity and mortality due to
sexually transmitted diseases ( syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia), Human
Immunodeficiency Virus ( HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ( AIDS),
and to assure that an up- to- date continuum of care services are available to all HIV-infected
individuals residing in North Carolina. The Unit administers the following
federal programs: Ryan White HIV C. A. R. E. Program, HIV Case Management Services,
Medicaid Community Alternatives Program ( CAP- AIDS), HIV Medications
Program/ AIDS Drug Assistance Program, and Housing Opportunities for Persons With
AIDS ( HOPWA). The AIDS Care Unit contracts with a variety of regional and local
community– based organizations, including HIV Care Consortia, public health
departments, home health agencies, hospitals, family care homes, independent living
apartments, transitional houses, housing authorities, AIDS service organizations, and
others for the provision of services through these programs.
The North Carolina HIV/ STD Prevention and Care Branch in general provides 1)
information on Sexually Transmitted Diseases ( STDs), HIV, and AIDS for individual
citizens, the media, policy makers, service providers and healthcare workers; 2) resources
for public health professionals and community- based organizations trained to assist in the
prevention of STDs ( including HIV/ AIDS); 3) STD treatment guidelines for health care
providers; 4) information about a variety of case management and care services available
to persons living with HIV/ AIDS; 5) statistics on STDs ( including HIV/ AIDS) in North
Carolina; 6) a collection of resources for public health prevention efforts directed toward
reducing the number of cases of HIV/ AIDS/ STDs in North Carolina; 7) information for
use in health policy planning, evaluation and research; and 8) presentations to special
interest groups.
Office of Economic Opportunity: The Office of Economic Opportunity ( OEO) is
housed in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Office helps low- income
families achieve economic self- sufficiency by administering three major federal
programs: the Community Services Block Grants Program, the Weatherization
Assistance Program and the Emergency Shelter Grants Program. The majority of funds
administered by OEO flows to local community action agencies and other community-based
organizations.
Created by the federal Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, the Community
Services Block Grant ( CSBG) Program provides a range of services designed to assist
low- income people to attain the skills, knowledge, and motivation necessary to achieve
self- sufficiency. The federal grant program permits a wide range of local program
15
activities to assist low- income participants in employment, education, better use of
available income, housing, emergency assistance, community involvement, and more
effective use of other programs. Thirty- six Community Action Agencies provide services
to low- income families throughout the State under the CSBG Program.
Funded through the U. S. Department of Energy, the Weatherization Assistance Program
assists low- wealth citizens in saving energy and reducing expenses through the
installation of energy conservation materials and the implementation of energy efficiency
measures in their homes. Priority is placed on providing assistance to senior citizens,
disabled persons and low- income families with children. A companion program, the
Heating and Air Repair and Replacement Program ( HARRP), was created in North
Carolina in 1995 through the use of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
funds. HARRP provides funds to repair and, in some instances, replace heating and/ or
air conditioning systems in the homes of low- income families.
The Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG) Program improves the quality of existing
emergency homeless shelters, helps meet the costs of operating emergency shelters and
transitional housing programs, and provides certain essential social services to homeless
individuals and families with children so that they may improve their situations. The ESG
program also restricts the increase of homelessness through homeless prevention efforts.
The program is funded by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
( HUD).
16
NORTH CAROLINA STRATEGIC PLAN
Participating Agencies:
#
#
$ " %
"
$ # &
'
17
SUMMARY
Figure S. 1 outlines the major strategies to be used by the Consolidated Plan partners to
target the state’s housing and community development needs as identified in the Housing
Market Analysis and Needs Assessment ( beginning on page 133). In this plan there is a
differentiation between the needs and activities in rural and urban5 areas. During the
needs assessment process, it became clear that urban and rural North Carolina have
different needs across income levels and therefore different strategies will need to be
employed to address them. A further discussion of each of these target populations and
strategies is discussed in the body of the Strategic Plan.
Figure S. 1: Priorities table
5 For purpose of this plan, urban areas are defined as all CDBG entitlement areas in the state. A CDBG
entitlement area is a municipality or county that receives CDBG funds directly from the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development, and does not participate in the statewide Small Cities
program. These areas include two counties ( Wake and Cumberland) and 23 municipalities: Asheville,
Burlington, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Concord, Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Goldsboro,
Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, High Point, Jacksonville, Kannapolis, Lenoir, Morganton, Raleigh,
Rocky Mount, Salisbury, Wilmington, and Winston- Salem.
Homeless Persons Renters at 31- 50% Renters at 51- 80%
Operating Costs for Homeless Providers Financing of Rental Rehabilitation Financing of Rental Rehabilitation
Homeless Prevention Financing of New Construction Financing of New Construction
Supportive Services Homeowners at 31- 50% Homebuyers at 30- 80% in areas where
Emergency Shelter Construction and Rehabilitation Comprehensive Rehabilitation needs are not met by the market
Supportive Housing Refinancing Individual Development Accounts
Non- Homeless Persons w/ Special Needs** First and Second Mortgages
Rent Assistance Downpayment Assistance
Supportive housing Financing of New Construction
Operating Assistance Homeowners at 51- 80% where needs are
Supportive Services not met by market
Renters at 0- 30% Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Rent Assistance Refinancing
Financing of Rental Rehabilitation
Financing of New Construction
Homeowners at 0- 30%
Urgent Repair
Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Foreclosure Prevention Activities
Homeless Persons Renters at 51- 60% Renters at 61- 80%
Operating Costs for Homeless Providers Financing of Rental Rehabilitation Financing of new construction
Homeless Prevention Financing of New Construction Financing of rental rehabilitation
Supportive Services Homeowners at 0- 50% Homebuyers at 30- 80% in areas where
Emergency Shelter Construction and Rehabilitation Comprehensive Rehabilitation needs are not met by market
Supportive Housing for the Non- elderly Individual Development Accounts
Non- Homeless Persons w/ Special Needs** Replacement Housing First and Second Mortgages
Rent Assistance Refinancing Downpayment Assistance
Supportive Housing Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure Financing of New Construction
Operating Assistance Homeowners at 51- 80%
Supportive Services Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Renters at 0- 50% Refinancing
Rent Assistance Residential water/ sewer infrastructure
Financing of Rental Rehabilitation
Financing of New Construction
Homeowners at 0- 50%
Urgent Repair
Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Replacement Housing
Foreclosure Prevention Activities
Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure
( when danger to public health)
** Includes the following:
Persons with Disabilities
Low- income Elderly Persons
Persons with HIV/ AIDS
Rural
High Medium Low
Urban
18
Figures S. 2, S. 3, and S. 4 below describe the strategies and objectives that the
Consolidated Plan partners will address over the next five years. These tables and charts
also summarize the expected accomplishments of the Consolidated Plan partners from
2006- 2010. The background information for these numbers can be found in the body of
the strategic plan, beginning on page 17. The strategies and objectives of the
Consolidated Plan are designed to address the needs described in the Housing Market
Analysis and Needs Assessment, beginning on page 133, and the quantifiable numbers
resulting from the CHAS data tabulations done by the United States Census Bureau6 ( see
Appendix A).
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives
6 Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy figures come from the U. S. Census Bureau. The North
Carolina Estimated Housing Needs table ( Figure ES2, page 7) tabulates the worst case need scenario for the
state.
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 1.1: Provide up to $ 250,000 in ESG funds for financial assistance to approximately
5,000 households over the next five years to pay late rent, mortgage payments, first month’s
rent, security deposits, utility deposits and/ or arrearages so that they may secure permanent
housing or prevent their eviction from permanent housing.
$ 250,000 5,000
Objective 1.2: Provide emergency financial assistance in the form of short- term rent, mortgage
and utility payments to approximately 2,000 persons living with HIV/ AIDS and their families
over the next 5 years using $ 5 million in HOPWA funds.
$ 5,000,000 2,000
Objective 2.1: Provide $ 10,000,000 over the next five years to assist over 110 organizations
across the state with operating costs for homeless shelters. These funds will assist in providing
shelter to over 14,000 homeless single adults and 30,000 members of homeless families each of
the next five years.
$ 10,000,000 220,000
Objective 3.1: Using approximately $ 800,000 of the state’s ESG allocation over the next five
years, subsidize the provision of one or more needed services to approximately 30,000 homeless
individuals and families served by ESG- funded homeless facilities. These needed services will
assist homeless individuals and families in their transition from homelessness to stability.
$ 800,000 30,000
Objective 4.1: Create 200 beds of emergency shelter using approximately $ 1 million from the
North Carolina Housing Finance Agency Supportive Housing Development Program between
2006 and 2010.
$ 1,000,000 200
Objective 4.2: Create a working group under the ICCHP to recommend the use of new funding
sources for emergency shelter construction and rehabilitation.
Objective 5.1: Develop 400 units of supportive housing for homeless persons with disabilities
utilizing $ 4 million in HOME and $ 4 million from the Housing Trust Fund through the NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development Program.
$ 8,000,000 400
High Priority
Homelessness
Strategy 1: Prevent homelessness in North Carolina.
Strategy 2: Provide operating support to homeless providers in North Carolina.
Strategy 3: Provide supportive services to homeless individuals and families to help
them transition to housing stability.
Strategy 4: Increase the supply of decent and sanitary emergency shelter beds for
homeless populations in North Carolina.
Strategy 5: Increase the number of supportive housing units for homeless people.
19
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives ( continued)
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 6.1: Provide rent assistance to 150 households using approximately $ 1 million in
HOPWA funds between 2006 and 2010, and provide 10 years of rent assistance to 680
households in Tax Credit developments with $ 6.25 million in HOME Match.
$ 7,250,000 830
Objective 7.1: Develop 400 units of supportive housing for non- homeless persons with
disabilities using $ 4 million in HOME and $ 4 million from the Housing Trust Fund between
2006 and 2010.
$ 8,000,000 400
Objective 8.1: From 2006- 2010, an estimated $ 2 million of HOPWA funds will be used for
operating expenses for dedicated housing facilities.
$ 2,000,000 350
Objective 9.1: Allocate approximately $ 300,000 in HOPWA funds to link supportive services
with operating expenses in a dedicated housing facility and short- term rent, mortgage and utility
payments for approximately 650 non- homeless persons living with HIV/ AIDS.
$ 300,000 650
Objective 10.1: Finance the development of 4,540 rental units affordable to high- priority
renters between 2006 and 2010.
235,550,000 4,540
Objective 11.1: Finance rehabilitation of 1,830 units for high- priority renter households from
2006- 2010 using approximately $ 73.4 million in state and federal tax credit equity, $ 5 million in
CDBG funds, and $ 843,000 in HOME funds .
79,243,000 1,830
Objective 12.1: Provide urgent repair to 3,500 elderly or disabled households whose homes are
in dire need of immediate attention. These activities will be funded using $ 10 million from the
North Carolina Housing Trust Fund and $ 2.6 million of CDBG funds.
$ 12,600,000 3,500
Objective 13.1: Rehabilitate 1,075 homes for high priority households, utilizing $ 19 million in
HOME funds, $ 16 million in CDBG funds, and $ 600,000 in DukeHELP funds.
$ 35,600,000 1,075
Objective 14.1: Provide a suitable and comparable replacement home for 550 elderly and other
high priority households utilizing approximately $ 32 million in CDBG funds.
$ 32,000,000 550
Objective 15.1: Prevent foreclosure for 475 homeowners with $ 2.5 million in state-appropriated
funds for the Home Protection Pilot Program and $ 280,000 in NCHFA funds.
$ 2,780,000 475
Objective 16.1: Provide approximately 500 high priority households with new water and/ or
wastewater services using approximately $ 21 million in CDBG funds. Allow for an additional
900 households to receive hook- ups to public water and/ or wastewater lines using $ 2.8 million
in CDBG funds and for repair of on- site well and/ or septic systems for 265 households using
$ 1.3 million in CDBG funds from the Division of Community Assistance.
$ 25,100,000 1,665
$ 465,473,000 Total High Priority 273,465
Strategy 13: Preserve the affordable owner- occupied housing stock owned by high
priority owners.
Strategy 14: Replace dilapidated homes occupied by high priority owners.
Strategy 15: Prevent foreclosure for high priority homeowners who have lost their
jobs through no fault of their own.
Strategy 16: Provide infrastructure for high priority owners in need.
Strategy 10: Increase the supply of new rental units affordable to high priority
renters.
Strategy 11: Preserve the rental housing stock affordable to high priority renters.
High Priority Owners
Strategy 12: Eliminate housing threats to life and safety among high priority
homeowners.
Strategy 7: Increase the supply of decent, affordable supportive housing for special
needs populations in North Carolina.
Strategy 8: Provide operating assistance for service providers.
Strategy 9: Orchestrate supportive services and rent assistance.
High Priority Renters
Strategy 6: Increase the ability of special needs populations to access existing rental
units.
Special Needs
20
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives ( continued)
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 17.1: Finance the development of 5,085 new rental units affordable to medium
priority renters.
$ 270,550,000 5,085
Objective 18.1: Finance rehabilitation of 1,945 units for medium priority renter households
using approximately $ 85 million in state and federal tax credit equity, $ 2.1 million in CDBG
funds, and $ 920,000 in HOME funds.
$ 88,020,000 1,945
Objective 19.1: Rehabilitate 500 homes for medium priority homeowners, utilizing $ 8.3
million in HOME funds, $ 7.3 million in CDBG funds, and $ 720,000 in DukeHELP funds.
$ 16,320,000 500
Objective 20.1: Provide a replacement home for 240 medium priority households utilizing
approximately $ 14.6 million in CDBG funds in order to provide safe, decent, and sanitary living
conditions.
$ 14,600,000 240
Objective 21.1: Provide approximately 215 medium priority households with new water and/ or
wastewater services living in areas with no public water or wastewater lines using approximately
$ 8.8 million in CDBG funds. Allow for an additional 400 households to receive hook- ups to
public water and/ or wastewater lines using $ 1.2 million in CDBG funds and for repair of on- site
well and/ or septic systems for 130 households using $ 650,000 in CDBG funds from the Division
of Community Assistance.
$ 10,650,000 745
$ 400,140,000 8,515
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 22.1: Finance the development of 1,865 new rental units affordable to low- priority
renter households.
$ 99,350,000 1,865
Objective 23.1: Finance rehabilitation of 635 units for low- priority renter households using
approximately $ 31.3 million in state and federal tax credit equity, $ 375,000 in CDBG funds, and
$ 200,000 in HOME funds.
$ 31,875,000 635
Objective 24.1: Work with local governments and nonprofits to assist 600 rental households in
purchasing their first home and achieving increased financial literacy with $ 7.75 million in
HOME funds and $ 1 million in CDBG funds.
$ 8,750,000 600
Objective 24.2: NCHFA will assist 370 new homeowners with Rural Opportunity Mortgage
Program first mortgages, using $ 18.4 million in HOME funds. NCHFA will enable 1,210
households to buy homes through its New Homes Loan Pool and its Self Help Loan Pool, using
$ 24.2 million in HOME.
$ 42,600,000 1,580
Objective 24.3: Assist 910 households in purchasing their first home through downpayment
assistance through American Dream Downpayment Initiative and HOME funds, and CDBG
funds.
$ 6,310,000 910
Objective 25.1: Provide related infrastructure for the construction 175 new homes from 2006-
2010 using $ 3.15 million in CDBG funds. $ 3,150,000 175
Medium Priority
Medium Priority Renters
Strategy 17: Increase the supply of new rental units affordable to medium priority
renters.
Strategy 18: Preserve existing rental housing affordable to medium priority renters.
Medium Priority Owners
Strategy 19: Preserve the affordable owner- occupied housing stock owned by
medium priority owners.
Strategy 20: Replace inadequate homes occupied by medium priority owners.
Strategy 21: Provide infrastructure for medium priority owners in need.
Total Medium Priority
Low Priority
Low Priority Renters
Strategy 22: Increase the supply of new rental units affordable to low priority
renters.
Strategy 23: Preserve existing rental housing affordable to low priority renters.
Homebuyers
Strategy 24: Enable renter households to become homeowners.
Strategy 25: Finance infrastructure for the construction of new homes affordable to
low- income homebuyers.
21
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives ( continued)
Figure S. 3: Housing Funding by Priority ( excludes the Mortgage Revenue Bond and Mortgage Credit Certificate
funding sources; these sources are nondiscretionary and must be used for the low- priority activity of
homeownership.)
Housing Funding by Priority
High
43%
Medium
38%
Low
19%
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 26.1: Rehabilitate 170 homes for low priority homeowners, utilizing $ 2.1 million in
HOME funds, $ 1.58 Million in DukeHELP funds, and $ 225,000 in CDBG funds.
$ 3,905,000 170
Objective 27.1: Provide a replacement home for 5 low priority households utilizing
approximately $ 450,000 in CDBG funds.
$ 450,000 5
Objective 28.1: Provide approximately 40 low priority households living in areas with no
public water or wastewater lines with new water and/ or wastewater services, using
approximately $ 1.6 million in CDBG funds. Allow for an additional 70 households to receive
hook- ups to public water and/ or wastewater lines using $ 200,000 in CDBG funds.
$ 1,800,000 110
$ 198,190,000 6,050
$ 1,063,803,000 288,030
Strategy 28: Provide infrastructure for low priority owners in need.
Total Low Priority
Total Activity ( High, Medium, & Low Priority)
Low Priority Owners
Strategy 26: Preserve the affordable owner- occupied housing stock owned by low
priority owners.
Strategy 27: Replace inadequate homes occupied by low priority owners.
22
Figure S. 4: Community Development Strategies and Objectives
Objective 31.3: Build community capacity by providing funds to the Capacity Building category, performing a complete review of
the strengths and weaknesses of this program, and conducting the Community Development Academy.
Objective 30.1: Increase the number of quality jobs available to North Carolinians through business recruitment and targeted
incentives.
Objective 30.2: Convene a task force of small business and entrepreneurship experts to identify best practices in using CDBG
funds to support small business and microenterprise growth in North Carolina.
Strategy 31: Focus programs on alleviation of poverty through sound development principles
Objective 31.1: Utilize smart growth principles in all CDBG projects.
Objective 29.1: Install public water and wastewater lines where feasible in rural residential areas, and provide funds to hook
residents to existing lines where available.
Objective 29.2: Identify rural households disposing of wastewater through straight piping and provide an appropriate wastewater
disposal method.
Strategy 30: Improve the economic prosperity of all North Carolinians through business recruitment and small
business development.
Objective 31.2: Support programs that encourage holistic improvements of neighborhoods through appropriate program guidelines
and allowing multiple activities to address a variety of needs.
Strategy 29: Improve public and environmental health by providing public water and wastewater services where
applicable, and mitigating improper wastewater disposal in more remote areas
Community Development Strategies
23
HOMELESS PERSONS
More than 10,000 people, including
persons in families, are homeless in
North Carolina every night. Many
people are homeless due to
unemployment, underemployment,
disability or chronic illness. The
homeless population also includes ex-offenders
as well as victims of domestic
violence. Homeless individuals and
families often face significant barriers
accessing mainstream housing and
supportive services, such as housing
choice vouchers and health care. The
State has prepared a Ten- Year Plan to
End Homelessness, which sets ambitious
goals to reduce the number of homeless
persons in North Carolina. Homeless
prevention, operating assistance, and
supportive services are activities that are
needed throughout all areas of North
Carolina. In urban areas, the emphasis
for state- funded activities is expected to
be on emergency shelter rehabilitation
and the development of transitional and
permanent supportive housing. In rural,
non- entitlement areas, the emphasis will
be on the construction of new shelters
and the development of transitional and
permanent supportive housing. All of
these activities are addressed in further
detail below.
Activities to address the needs of
homeless persons include:
Homeless Prevention
Operating Costs for
Homeless Providers
Supportive Services
Emergency Shelter
Construction and
Rehabilitation
Supportive Housing
Homeless Prevention
Population & Need
A weakened economy over the last five
years and the resultant growth in
unemployment and underemployment
rates has increased the number of
persons seeking financial assistance to
pay late rent and mortgage payments and
to prevent utility shut- offs and/ or
eviction from their residences. Requests
for this assistance from households at
any income level usually indicates that
the household is at imminent risk of
homelessness and can be a way of
identifying households that can benefit
Objective: Provide up to $ 250,000 in
ESG funds for financial assistance to
approximately 1,250 individuals and
3,750 households over five years to pay
late rent, mortgage payments, first
month’s rent, security deposits, utility
deposits and/ or arrearages so that they
may secure permanent housing or
prevent their eviction from permanent
housing.
Objective: Provide up to $ 5 million in
emergency financial assistance in the
form of short- term rent, mortgage and
utility payments to approximately 2,000
persons living with HIV/ AIDS and their
families over the next 5 years.
24
from comprehensive homelessness
prevention activities, including financial
assistance. Persons seeking such
assistance are not limited to those
between zero and 30 percent of median
family income ( MFI), but are often those
earning between 50 and 80 percent of
MFI who face sudden income loss
because of lay- offs due to business
closings or downsizing and/ or medical
or legal emergencies. Additional persons
often in need of homeless prevention
assistance include ex- offenders recently
released from prison, victims of
domestic violence and sexual assault,
discharged patients in mental and/ or
veteran hospitals and residents of
transitional housing facilities who
require security deposits, first month’s
rent and utility deposits in order to
secure permanent housing.
A major goal of the North Carolina Ten
Year Plan to End Homelessness is to
“ implement aggressive prevention
strategies.” The plan calls for improved
discharge planning from publicly funded
institutions such as prisons and mental
and veteran hospitals as well as targeted
assistance to households with housing
cost to income ratios which put them at
immediate risk of homelessness. In
addition, the Plan calls for increasing
employment rates among people who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness and
developing and implementing a “ no
wrong door” policy that ensures
homeless people needing assistance will
be properly linked to appropriate
resources and services. Admittedly,
many of the Plan’s prevention strategies
will take a period of time to initiate and
in the Plan’s first draft none identify or
call for the establishment of a state
source of funding. Creating a state
source of funding from which homeless
and/ or people at risk of homelessness
may receive assist to secure or retain
permanent housing would have an
immediate impact in preventing
homelessness.
Many individuals and families with low-incomes
are forced to make critical
choices when their finances are not
sufficient to meet basic living needs. The
HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study
( 1996), the most comprehensive study to
date, presents a statistical snapshot of the
economic well being of people living
with HIV/ AIDS. At the time of the
study, 63 percent were unemployed, 46
percent had a household income of less
than $ 10,000, 20 percent had no health
insurance, and 78 percent had no private
health insurance.
Housing and healthcare are the primary
needs for all people living with
disabilities or chronic illness in North
Carolina. However, many of these
people, who earn low incomes, must
make difficult decisions for themselves
and their families. At times they may
have to decide between paying medical
bills - or paying rent, a utility bill, or
move - in costs such as security deposits.
The repercussions of such decisions may
mean fewer meals, no healthcare, and
loss of utilities, overcrowded housing, or
eviction.
How Activity Meets Need
The provision of homeless prevention
assistance in the form of security
deposits, late rent and mortgage
payments and first month’s rent will
allow homeless/ formerly homeless
families and individuals to secure a
permanent residence and those persons
who have experienced a sudden loss of
25
income and are facing eviction to remain
in their permanent place of residence.
Payment of utility deposits or utility
arrearages will allow individuals and
families to remain in safe and habitable
housing.
The HOPWA ( Housing Opportunities
for Persons with AIDS) funded activity
of providing short- term rent, mortgage
and utility payment assistance, prevents
homelessness for persons living with
HIV/ AIDS ( PLWHA) who are already
housed and/ or homeless by providing 21
weeks of emergency financial assistance.
The short- term rent, mortgage and utility
assistance is coupled with Project
Sponsors providing resource
identification and housing information.
This allows consumers and their families
the opportunity to be housed or remain
housed.
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
Existing state and federal resources for
homeless prevention activities in North
Carolina are extremely limited. The
primary funding resources are the
federal Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG)
Program and privately held funds
controlled by state and/ or local charities
and churches.
Federal regulations allow ESG grantees
to use no more than 30 percent of their
total ESG allocation for homeless
prevention activities.
Use of funds for homeless prevention by
ESG grantee organizations has steadily
declined over the last seven years. The
amount of ESG funds used by Balance
of State ESG grantees to fund homeless
prevention activities totaled $ 161,169 in
FY 1998- 99. In FY 2005- 06 only
$ 46,489 will be used by ESG grantees
for homeless prevention activities. In
FY 2004, less than 9 percent of the
State’s ESG entitlement funds were used
for homeless prevention and that was in
only one of the State’s five entitlement
areas. The remaining four entitlement
areas chose not to use their ESG funds
for homeless prevention. The decline in
use of ESG funds for homeless
prevention by ESG grantees can be
traced to the increasing need to use ESG
funds for shelter operating costs and, to a
lesser extent, client services.
Many ESG grantees rely on charities and
churches in their service areas to fully
meet their clients’ need for homeless
prevention funds or to supplement the
grantee’s own limited homeless
prevention program. However, since the
overall decline in our State’s economy of
recent years has resulted in a reciprocal
drop in individual and business
donations. Many churches and charities
have also been forced to substantially
reduce the amount of money they can
provide for these purposes.
HOPWA Project Sponsors that provide
emergency financial assistance are
limited by a specific number of weeks
for assistance, 21 weeks out of a 52-
week period. Although, emergency
financial allocations have increased for
project sponsors from 2002- 2004, there
was a 5 percent decrease in funds for FY
2005- 2006. Based on the 2004 NC
HIV/ AIDS Housing Plan, the need for
more permanent/ permanent supportive
housing was evident from consumers.
Therefore, the allocation for FY 2005-
2006 is $ 1,140,000.00 to allow
additional funding added to tenant- based
26
rental assistance and operating expenses
for a dedicated housing facility.
Summary of Existing Programs
Currently, the best available sources of
funding to assist an individual or family
needing financial assistance with late
rent or mortgage payments, security
deposits and first- month’s rent and/ or
utility deposits and/ or arrearages remain
the ESG program, whether the State’s
balance- of- state program or the ESG
programs of the State’s five ESG
entitlement areas, and funds controlled
by churches and local charities. The City
of Charlotte is unique among the state’s
cities in that it provides as much as
$ 200,000 of city funds per year for rental
assistance through a local nonprofit
organization.
The state also offers the Home
Protection Pilot Program, a program
designed to help homeowners who lose
their income through no fault of their
own to retain their homes; although this
is a homelessness prevention activity, it
is addressed as Foreclosure Prevention
Activity ( page 53) under the section on
High Priority Homeowners.
County departments of social services
are required to use a portion of their
Work First Block Grant allocations for
emergency assistance for those families
determined eligible for Work First
assistance. But each local county
department of social services determines
the amount of its allocation that will be
used for emergency assistance, the types
of emergencies for which it will use the
funds and the maximum amount of
funding which can be received by each
eligible family. These emergency
assistance funds are not available to
individuals since only persons with
dependent children may qualify for
Work First.
Currently, the state HOPWA program
covers 92 of the 100 counties in NC with
emergency financial assistance in the
form of short- term rent, mortgage and
utility payment. Eleven HOPWA
Project Sponsors are funded across the
state to provide this service.
The U. S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Health Resources and
Services Administration ( HRSA) also
provides funding dedicated to serving
people living with HIV/ AIDS through
the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS
Resources Emergency ( CARE) Act
program. Nearly $ 600,000 in Ryan
White CARE Act Title II and Title IV
funding was dedicated to housing
assistance for the fiscal year 2003. Both
the Ryan White Program and HOPWA
can be used to fund housing and related
support services, although the eligible
activities differ between programs.
Expected Units and Funding
Assuming that ESG grantees continue
their pattern of use of ESG funding, a
total of only $ 50,000 of the state’s
annual ESG allocation will be used for
homeless prevention activities by ESG
grantees each of the next five years. ESG
entitlement funding can change from
year to year and, although it is expected
that there will be some cities and/ or
counties in North Carolina receiving
ESG entitlement funding, it is uncertain
how much this would be and for what
purposes it will be used.
It is impossible to determine the amount
of funds that will be available through
27
charities and churches for homeless
prevention activities over the next five
years. Much will be determined by the
rate of charitable and church
contributions by individuals and
businesses over the next five years.
It is estimated that 250 individuals and
750 households per year will seek funds
for late rent and mortgage payments,
security and utility deposits and utility
arrearages from the 15- 20 State ESG
program grantees that chose to use a
portion of their ESG allocation for this
purpose.
Operating Costs for Homeless
Providers
Population & Need
In FY 2005- 06 the State’s balance- of-state
Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG)
Program will fund 144 facilities
providing shelter to homeless people in
North Carolina. These facilities are
operated by 110 nonprofit organizations
and three units of local government in 53
counties of the state. They include 24
hour, day- only and night- only
emergency shelters, transitional shelters,
domestic violence shelters, and interfaith
hospitality networks. This is the largest
number of facilities ever funded with the
State’s ESG allocation.
The needs of these facilities are many,
but over the last five years their need for
simple operating costs has escalated.
Many have seen donations from their
local communities and from such
funding mainstays as United Way fall in
the wake of 9/ 11. With local
governments experiencing shortages in
revenue, many facilities have seen their
local government contributions decline.
New funding methodologies and
unfunded mandates adopted by state
and/ or federal funding have also caused
many grantees to lose funds they have
depended on for years. The actual year
to year increases in such items as
utilities, supplies, waste management,
rent, food and equipment combined with
an increased number of people seeking
their services has caused many shelters
to experience serious budget deficits.
Finally, the cost of maintaining and
repairing shelters often housed in
buildings needing major rehabilitation
has further burdened shelter budgets.
In FY 98- 99, 80 percent ( 1,850,439) of
the State’s ESG allocation available to
grantees was used by program grantees
for operating costs. In FY 2005- 06,
program grantees will use 92 percent
( 2,178,660) of the State’s ESG
allocation available to them for
operating costs. This increased use of
ESG funding for operations costs has
resulted in less ESG funding going for
client services and homeless prevention
activities.
How Activity Meets Need
Homeless facilities must have the
financial resources to pay the normal,
operating costs of sheltering and feeding
their clients. This, after all, is their
primary function – to assure that a
Objective: Provide $ 10,000,000 over
the next five years to assist over 110
organizations across the state with
operating costs for homeless shelters.
These funds will assist in providing
shelter to over 14,000 homeless single
adults and 30,000 members of
homeless families each of the next five
years.
28
person or family without a permanent
residence receives simple shelter from
the elements and the basic necessities of
life. Client services are important, but
mean little if the person does not have a
safe, decent place to lay his/ her head or
receive a simple meal.
The HOPWA Program provides
operating assistance for adult day
care/ day health programs and family
care homes with the financial resources
to pay the operating costs for the day- to-day
program functions serving persons
living with HIV/ AIDS. The availability
of funding these facilities provides
clients who need this level of assistance
with permanent supportive housing
linked to a variety of support services.
Clients receive nutritional meals,
transportation to from the doctor, a safe
living environment, job training skills
and/ or access to a case manager.
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
In addition to the federally funded ESG
program, many shelters use local
government funds, donations from
churches, individuals and businesses,
fund- raising events and foundation
funding to pay their operating costs. At
times, shelters have started businesses
such as thrift stores to subsidize their
operations. In the last five years, many
shelters have begun charging their
clients nominal boarding fees or
program fees and using fees collected to
support their increasing operating and
service program costs.
There are no State monies specifically
designated to assist homeless facilities
with operating costs. This is in direct
contrast. Some states that provide State
funds to assist homeless shelters. If a
shelter serves a particular sub- population
of the homeless such as the mentally ill
or disabled or those with substance
abuse disorders, and establishes a
contract with the Local Management
Entity, it may be able to secure some
funding through the Division of Mental
Health, Developmental Disabilities and
Substance Abuse Disorders of the
Department of Health and Human
Services. If a shelter serves survivors of
domestic violence and sexual assault
they may qualify for funding from a
variety of programs administered by the
Governor’s Crime Commission, the
Council for Women of the NC
Department of Administration, or their
local department of social services.
Youth shelters can apply for funding
through the Department of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
A state or local entitlement may allow
use of its federally funded Community
Development Block Grant ( CDBG)
funds to pay the cost of operating and
maintaining a facility which houses a
public service. However, no more than
15 percent of the CDBG funds received
by a jurisdiction can go towards public
services. In North Carolina, some local
entitlements have been willing to
provide CDBG funds to homeless
shelters in their areas, but balance- of-state
CDBG funds have not been used to
fund operating costs of homeless shelters
despite the work of homeless advocates
to secure State CDBG funding for this
purpose. With CDBG funds targeted for
elimination or dramatic cuts by the
federal government, it is doubtful CDBG
will ever be a viable or available source
of funding in the future for homeless
shelters in North Carolina.
29
Adult day care/ day health programs and
family care homes that serve persons
living with HIV/ AIDS that need this
level of care must be licensed. There is
a need for facilities to receive and/ or
retain licensure for new and existing
adult day care/ day health programs and
family care homes. Under state statutes,
facilities must work with the Adult
Home Specialist within the Division of
Social Services and the Construction
Section of the Division of Facility
Services to obtain licensure.
In addition, there are not enough
HOPWA funds to provide assistance to
all interested facilities. There is no
required state match. Based on the
recent competitive HOPWA request for
application process, there was $ 450,000
available to dedicated housing facilities;
however, grants were received totaling
over $ 960,000. Therefore, additional
funding is needed to support dedicated
housing facilities that can serve persons
living with HIV/ AIDS.
Summary of Existing Programs
Currently the State of North Carolina
offers no programs that finance
operating costs of emergency shelters.
Homeless service providers depend
heavily on the federally funded ESG
program, local government
contributions, donations from
individuals, businesses and churches,
fundraising events and organization-owned
businesses to pay their operating
costs.
Expected Units and Funding
Over the next five years, absent any
changes in the manner in which ESG
funding is distributed, it is expected that
the bulk of the State’s balance- of- state
ESG funding will be used by grantees to
pay the operating costs of their facilities.
Over a period of five years, ESG funds
used to pay shelter- operating costs could
total as much as $ 10,000,000. This total
equals approximately between 90 and 92
percent of the total allocation of ESG
funds to the state program. Sadly, these
funds are not expected to cover the total
operating costs of State ESG grantees.
They will still need to rely on private
donations, fund raising events, church
donations, and foundation funding, local
government support and/ or client rent
and program fees to subsidize their
operating costs.
It is estimated that an average of 30,000
single homeless individuals and 14,000
members of homeless families will be
served by an average of 140 ESG funded
facilities over each of the next five years.
S
upportive Services
Population and Need
Homeless individuals and families can
have numerous problems and issues that
reduce their ability to maintain housing.
Indeed, it is rare that a homeless person
or family does not need a variety of
services to stabilize their lives. It is
equally rare to find a homeless shelter
that does not provide or at the very least
refer its clients to service providers. In a
majority of cases, homeless shelters
require their clients to pursue service
opportunities as a condition of their
Objective: Use approximately $ 800,000 of the
state’s ESG allocation over the next five years
to subsidize the delivery of one or more
needed services to approximately 30,000
homeless people sheltered by ESG grantees.
These services will assist in their transition
from homelessness to stability.
30
shelter residence and federal and/ or state
programs require grantees to provide the
most essential of services to their clients
in order to receive funding. This has
become a common practice because
organizations working with the homeless
have recognized that a homeless person
or family will require a variety of
services to effectively address the cause
of their homelessness and realistically
prevent their homelessness from re-occurring.
In FY 1998- 99, 13 percent ($ 295,942) of
the State’s ESG allocation available to
grantees was used by program grantees
for client services. In FY 2004- 2005,
program grantees are using 8 percent
($ 166,330) of the State’s ESG allocation
available to them to pay the cost of
providing program services to their
clients. The need to use ESG funding for
operating costs coupled with their
success in securing funding from other
government programs for client services
has caused this drop in the use of ESG
funds for client services.
How the Activity Meets the Need
Sheltering the homeless in emergency
shelters indefinitely is not the solution to
homelessness. Success in moving people
from homelessness to stability more
often depends on the quality and
availability of needed services that can
address the root causes of why a person
becomes homeless and the availability of
affordable permanent housing in their
areas. Unemployment, for example, may
cause a person to run out of funds to pay
their rent or mortgage and, consequently,
cause the person to be evicted from
his/ her home. However, what caused the
unemployment? Was it poor work
habits, a company layoff, alcohol and/ or
substance abuse, a discovered criminal
record, a serious and persistent illness or
was it a combination of events, bad
decisions and/ or poor planning? Even
when it may appear that the
homelessness is caused by a single
factor, such as unemployment, it is more
often the case that this single factor is
actually a manifestation of a number of
previous events or conditions in the
person’s life.
The needs of a homeless person or
family may be as basic as shelter, food,
clothing or transportation or they may
require more skilled services such as
case management, employment training
or re- training, GED attainment,
professional counseling for addiction,
mental illness and personal and/ or
family issues, basic to complex medical
and/ or dental treatment, parenting skills,
budget counseling, nutritional
counseling and day care. Permanent
housing placement with the provision of
supportive services linked to be
undeniably more effective and longer
lasting than providing a homeless person
with shelter and other basic necessities
of life only or placing them in permanent
housing without supportive services.
This is especially true with persons or
families who have been homeless for
long periods of time or that have a
multitude of problems which are
intertwined to such an extent that they
seem overwhelming to the client.
Supportive services tied to a dedicated
housing facility or permanent
independent housing ( STRMU) provides
a more consistent and fluid continuum of
services for clients. Based on the 2004
HIV/ AIDS Housing Plan, coordination
of housing and support service delivery
will ensure that persons receiving
HOPWA funds will have access to a
31
case manager and a housing care plan
for the future.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
In addition to the federally funded ESG
program, many shelters use local
government funds, church, individual,
foundation and business donations, fund-raising
and other federal and/ or state
government program funds to provide
needed services to their clients. In ESG,
however, a grantee may not spend more
than 30 percent of its total allocation for
Services costs and, as mentioned earlier,
the amount of ESG funds used by ESG
balance- of- state grantees has steadily
declined over the last seven years due to
their need to use ESG funds for
operating costs.
Homeless shelter and service providers
that serve a specific subpopulation of the
homeless often pursue other state or
federal programs designed especially for
this subpopulation. The federally funded
PATH Program, administered by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Administration ( SAMSHA), may be a
source of client services for homeless
shelter and service providers who have
clients with serious mental illness
including those with a co- occurring
substance use disorder. In North
Carolina, however, the PATH allocation
totals less than one million dollars per
year and the ten PATH providers are
able to serve under 600 clients per year.
The Veteran Administration’s Homeless
Providers Grant and Per Diem Program
is a federal program that is accessed by
some shelters serving a significant
number of homeless veterans. HUD’s
Supportive Housing Program can offer
funding not only for transitional housing,
but for supportive services such as child
care, employment assistance, outpatient
health services, case management,
referral to permanent housing and
nutritional counseling. Shelters serving
persons diagnosed with HIV/ AIDS may
receive HOPWA funding which can
provide some supportive services for
their clients. State- funded programs
administered by the NC Council for
Women or the Governor’s Crime
Commission may be accessed by
domestic violence and sexual assault
shelters. All of these federally and state
funded programs provide services
funding for the State’s homeless shelter
and service providers. However, funding
from these programs is not guaranteed
past the initial funding period. All are
competitive programs and must,
therefore, be applied for again by
homeless service providers.
Homeless shelter and service providers
who are able to meet credentialing
standards as a Medicaid provider may
receive payments under the Medicaid
program for eligible clients. However,
usually these funds go to providers
delivering specialized services to a
particular service population. Becoming
a Medicaid provider is usually not
practical or feasible for a homeless
service provider assisting the general
homeless population. Homeless service
providers most commonly provide
assistance to clients applying for benefits
from government programs.
The State’s Ten- Year Plan to End
Homelessness acknowledges that service
funding gaps do and will continue to
occur for persons and families who are
not Medicaid eligible, for services that
are not Medicaid eligible, and to cover
costs while individuals are in the
32
application process. The Plan also notes
that new resources in the private and
public sector should be identified to
meet these gaps.
Summary of Existing Programs
Homeless service providers in North
Carolina fund services to their clients
through a variety of sources including
federal and state funded programs, local
charities, private foundations, churches,
individual and business donations,
fundraising activities and client program
fees. Many of the federal and state
funded programs which fund client
services are competitive and/ or have
special conditions limiting funding to a
specific service, population or period of
time. Funding from non- government
sources is not assured either in amount
or from year- to- year.
Expected Units and Funding
It is the goal of the Office of Economic
Development to subsidize the provision
by funded shelters of one or more
needed services to approximately 30,000
homeless people. These services will
assist homeless people and families in
their transition from homelessness to
stability. It is estimated that
approximately $ 800,000 of the State’s
ESG allocation over the next five years
will be used for this purpose.
Emergency Shelter Construction
and Rehabilitation
Population & Need
There are currently at least 182
emergency shelters in the State of North
Carolina, including shelters for survivors
of domestic violence. These shelters
provide approximately 5,000 beds of
temporary housing for homeless
individuals and homeless families. The
January 2005 statewide point- in- time
count totaled 11,165 homeless people,
including 7,642 individuals and 3,523
people in families. Emergency shelters
range from four beds to as many as 232
beds. In 19 North Carolina counties,
however, there are no emergency
shelters.
Of the 182 emergency shelters in the
State, it is estimated that one or more
shelters in urban areas need substantial
renovation. For example, many shelters
are located in buildings that are leased or
formerly owned by cities/ counties ( e. g.,
Fifth Street Ministries in Statesville,
Helen Wright Center in Raleigh, Hope
Station in Wilson). Unfortunately, many
of these structures had deficiencies
before they were transferred to homeless
providers. Over the years, these
deficiencies have become more
pronounced leaving many homeless
people living in shelters that are unsafe
and with inadequate plumbing and
sanitary facilities. Further, many of
these buildings are not handicapped
Objective: Create 200 beds of
emergency shelter using approximately
$ 1 million from the North Carolina
Housing Finance Agency Supportive
Housing Development Program
between 2006 and 2010.
33
accessible. When nonprofit
organizations took over these facilities to
provide emergency shelter, they usually
did not have sufficient replacement
reserves to carry out significant building
renovations.
How Activity Meets Need
The construction of new emergency
shelters in underserved, rural
communities ( non- entitlement
communities) will allow families and
individuals to have safe temporary
housing without needing to leave their
community. The provision of
emergency shelter facilities throughout
the State will relieve pressure off
existing emergency shelters in the
metropolitan areas of the State. In rural
areas, many homeless families are living
in precarious doubled up situations due
to the lack of a shelter.
The rehabilitation of substandard
emergency shelters is a high priority
given the fact that some homeless
individuals and residents are living in
substandard shelters. Some shelters
contain lead, asbestos, as well as mold,
all of which are serious health hazards.
Many emergency shelters are not in
compliance with current building codes
and have high operating costs due to the
lack of energy efficiency. By providing
resources to renovate existing shelters,
the State will be creating safe and decent
shelters for the homeless. Energy
efficiency improvements will reduce
monthly operating costs for the shelter
owner.
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
There is a desperate need for
construction of new and renovation or
repair for existing emergency shelters.
However, a dire lack of funds exists to
address these needs. Existing state and
federal resources for the construction of
emergency shelters is extremely limited
in North Carolina. The primary funding
sources are:
· Community Development Block
Grant ( Entitlement and Small Cities
programs)
· NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program
· Emergency Shelter Grant Program
Under CDBG regulations, communities
may construct or rehabilitate public
facilities, which include emergency
shelters. A local government or a
nonprofit entity must own the shelter.
There are 25 CDBG entitlement areas7 in
North Carolina, including Raleigh,
Durham, Charlotte, and Asheville. Many
entitlement communities have leveraged
their CDBG and/ or ESG funds with state
resources to construct new emergency
shelters. The City of Wilmington, for
example, provided $ 300,000 in CDBG
funds to build the new Good Shepherd
Ministries emergency shelter ( St. James
Annex). The North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency provided an additional
$ 400,000 for the construction of this
emergency shelter. CDBG funds are
also distributed to the State of North
Carolina to address rural community
7 A CDBG entitlement area is a municipality or
county that receives CDBG funds directly from
the United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development, and does not participate in
the statewide Small Cities program.
34
development needs with housing needs.
They are administered by the Division of
Community Assistance with the North
Carolina State Department of Commerce
( Small Cities CDBG program).
However, the Small Cities program does
not set- aside funding for emergency
shelter construction or rehabilitation.
Furthermore, a local government must
be the conduit for CDBG funds to be
spent at the local level, and there has not
been a demand from local governments
for construction or rehabilitation of a
homeless shelter using CDBG funds in
the past.
The HUD Emergency Shelter Grant
Program allows for the use of funds for
construction and renovation, but in
North Carolina ESG funds are not used
for this purpose. This decision was made
due to the high cost of renovation and
construction, the low level of ESG
funding available annually and the need
of funded homeless facilities to use the
ESG funding for operating costs,
provision of essential services and
homeless prevention activities. Two or
more construction or renovation projects
could easily deplete North Carolina’s
annual ESG allocation.
The NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program is another
significant resource. SHDP is funded
primarily by the State Housing Trust
Fund ( general appropriations only) but
even this resource creates challenges
since it is provided as a loan and not a
grant. Many homeless providers simply
do not have enough operating income to
cover debt service, let alone their month-to-
month expenses of running a shelter.
Efforts to open new shelters often
encounter resistance from the local
populace, termed NIMBY ( Not In My
Back Yard). The North Carolina
Housing Coalition is currently
investigating the preponderance of
NIMBY fights across the state to
determine ways to best approach these
political standoffs and still ensure that
safe, decent, and sanitary housing for our
state’s poorest residents is achieved.
Summary of Existing Programs
The Supportive Housing Development
Program at the North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency has provided funding
for the construction and rehabilitation of
emergency shelters since 1994. Recent
shelter construction projects have
included the Urban Ministries of
Durham Community Shelter ( shelter
renovation and expansion) as well as the
Good Shepherd Ministries St. James
Annex in Wilmington. In the past,
NCHFA has used energy efficiency
funds to carry out shelter rehabilitation
efforts. NCHFA has not provided any
funding for emergency shelter
rehabilitation for several years.
However, it is in the process of revising
the guidelines for this program.
Construction and rehabilitation of public
facilities ( including homeless shelters) is
permitted under CDBG regulations, and
is an eligible activity in DCA’s
Concentrated Needs or Revitalization
Strategies categories. However, the
state’s Small Cities CDBG program has
not allocated funds for construction or
rehabilitation of a homeless shelter, and
such a request has never been made. By
2007, DCA will explore the options of
increasing promotion of the possibility
of construction or rehabilitation of
homeless shelters in its Concentrated
Needs and Revitalization Strategies
35
categories, and also amending its
Housing Development category
guidelines to allow for construction or
rehabilitation of homeless shelters.
Expected Units and Funding
From 2006- 2010, the North Carolina
Housing Finance Agency will invest
approximately $ 1 million under its
Supportive Housing Development
Program ( Housing Trust Fund) for
provision of 200 additional emergency
shelter beds, either through construction
or rehabilitation, in urban and rural
areas.
Supportive Housing
Population & Need
North Carolina’s Ten- Year Plan to End
Homelessness calls for the development
of 1,250 units of permanent supportive
housing for homeless persons with
disabilities, with approximately 50
percent of these units created solely
through rental assistance. According to
figures contained in the 2005 Continuum
of Care Plans around the State, there is a
need for more than 4,000 units of
permanent supportive housing.
Although the Continuums of Care do not
cover all 100 counties in the State, these
estimates are the best available figures
and are based, in part, on annual point in
time counts of the homeless population.
The need for permanent supportive
housing can include several different
models including rental assistance that is
linked to supportive services, such as
HUD’s Shelter Plus Care Program, as
well as independent apartments that are
targeted for homeless individuals or
families with disabilities. While there
are many homeless individuals and
families that do not require permanent
housing with supportive services, it is
estimated that between 10 to 15 percent
of the homeless populations are
chronically homeless due to disabilities
such as mental illness, substance abuse,
and developmental disabilities. Many of
these individuals may need access to
ongoing supportive services.
There are almost 4,000 beds of
transitional housing serving the
homeless in North Carolina, including
more than 2,000 beds for homeless
individuals and more than 1,800 beds for
homeless families.
How Activity Meets Need
The provision of permanent housing
with supportive services provides safe,
affordable housing for homeless
populations that need community
supports. Supportive services help the
client maintain their housing. The
provision of stable affordable housing
will allow many homeless individuals
and families with disabilities to live
independently. Providing financing for
the construction of housing so that
homeless persons can leave the streets
and shelters and move into a more
permanent living arrangement is an
essential tool in the plan to end chronic
homelessness.
Objective: Develop 400 units of
supportive housing for homeless persons
with disabilities utilizing $ 4 million in
HOME and $ 4 million from the Housing
Trust Fund through the NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development
Program.
36
Transitional supportive housing is
important because it allows homeless
individuals and families to gain
resources that will allow them to enter
the permanent housing market ( with or
without supportive services).
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
The development of supportive housing
for homeless populations is hindered by
several components, including: 1) high
development costs; 2) lack of
multifamily zoning districts and
NIMBYism, 3) complexity of mixing
several funding resources; 4) limited
number of grants; 5) lack of nonprofit
capacity; and 6) significant
predevelopment expenses for new
construction or acquisition and rehab.
Unfortunately, many North Carolina
communities have not applied for
available Continuum of Care funds,
which has also prevented the
development of supportive housing for
the homeless.
Supportive housing can be funded by a
variety of funding sources, including
HOME funds, CDBG funds, NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development
Program funds, Continuum of Care SHP
funds, Veterans Affairs Capital Grants,
as well as HOPWA funds. Many of
these resources are extremely
competitive. Further, many HOME
participating jurisdictions use a large
majority of their HOME funding for first
time homeownership programs and not
rental housing and/ or supportive
housing.
Transitional housing is often provided
within congregate settings where
residents share bedrooms. Often, the
housing is serving homeless individuals
with disabilities. Despite possible
violations of the Fair Housing Act, many
communities across North Carolina are
limiting the development of group
homes by using one or more of the
following methods: 1) restrictive single
family definitions which limit the
number of unrelated persons that can
live in single family homes; 2) group
home spacing requirements; 3) public
hearing requirements; and 4) imposition
of institutional/ commercial building
code regulations. Although state law
prevents local jurisdictions from
excluding family care homes, state law
does permit local communities to use ½
mile spacing ( NCGS 168- 2). The half-mile
spacing requirement has been
identified as an impediment to fair
housing in the State of North Carolina
2001 Analysis of Impediments of Fair
Housing Choice. The continued use of
group home spacing requirements will
make it difficult for the State to comply
with the U. S. Supreme Court decision in
Olmstead vs. L. C. In addition to local
restrictions, there are repeated instances
of NIMBYism ( Not in My Backyard).
Summary of Existing Programs
The principal state programs that
provide funding for supportive housing
for the homeless include NCHFA’s
Supportive Housing Development
Program ( SHDP) and LIHTC targeted
units. The SHDP at the North Carolina
Housing Finance Agency has provided
funding for the development of
supportive housing since 1994. SHDP
has funded transitional as well as
permanent housing development for
homeless subpopulations including
domestic violence survivors and persons
with mental illness.
37
The State of North Carolina’s Qualified
Allocation Plan requires LIHTC owners
to target 10 percent of the units in their
developments to persons with disabilities
or homeless populations. To support this
commitment, developers partner with
local lead agencies who agree to be the
conduit for tenant referrals and to
provide, coordinate or act as a referral
source for the array of community
services, both Medicaid and non-
Medicaid funded services, available to
assist persons with disabilities to live
successfully in the community.
Furthermore, developers make 5% of the
total number of units in their
development fully accessible ( in addition
to the number of units required by
existing law and building codes). These
units include a higher than minimum
standard of accessible design features,
including curb less showers and 5’ by 5’
clear floor space around toilets in each
class ( bedroom size) of units.
The Division of Community Assistance
allocates Community Development
Block Grant ( CDBG) for new
construction by funding the required
infrastructure for new development.
There are a number of different program
requirements based upon the type of
housing to be constructed. Though DCA
does not offer a category specifically
targeted towards supportive housing,
projects in the Housing Development
category in the past have been utilized
for supportive housing projects.
Housing Development projects can be
utilized for multi- family projects aimed
at residents who, for one reason or
another, will continue to rent. DCA will
provide for installation of public
infrastructure ( water and sewer lines are
automatically eligible for funding;
streets, sidewalks and drainage may be
funded on a case by case basis), the
removal of hazardous material,
acquisition of vacant land ( by an eligible
nonprofit) or vacant historic buildings
( by an eligible nonprofit or for- profit
developer), and certain rehabilitation
activities ( on a case- by- case basis).
In addition, DCA works collaboratively
with the North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency's ( NCHFA) Tax
Credit/ Rental Production Program ( RPP)
for multi- unit rental housing by
providing infrastructure related funds to
some of these development projects.
Expected Units and Funding
The primary State program to provide
supportive housing for homeless persons
with disabilities is the NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development
Program ( SHDP). From 2006- 2010, it is
expected that the NCHFA SHDP will
fund approximately 400 units of
supportive housing for a total of $ 8
million ( comprised of $ 4 million from
the Housing Trust Fund and $ 4 million
HOME). Many of these units will be
developed using a combination of HUD
Continuum of Care funding as well as
NCHFA SHDP. NCHFA has begun to
use HOME funds as a cash match for
HUD Continuum of Care development
projects.
DCA aims to provide at least $ 2 million
for new housing construction through its
Housing Development program. These
funds may be used for the construction
of supportive housing, though that
decision is left up to the local
government and/ or local nonprofits and
developers. There is no set- aside in the
Housing Development program for
38
supportive housing, so estimating the
number of these housing units that will
be constructed as supportive housing
units is dubious at best. DCA’s goal for
creation of new rental housing units is
detailed in the high, medium, and low
priority renter sections of the strategic
plan.
39
PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Non- homeless populations with special
needs continue to be a high priority for
the State of North Carolina because they
are often extremely low- income and
require community services and/ or
modifications to their homes in order to
live as independently as possible.
Populations addressed under this priority
include persons with mental illness,
HIV/ AIDS, developmental disabilities,
physical disabilities, and substance
abuse disorders. In addition, this priority
addresses the needs of the elderly and
frail elderly. While disabilities do not
necessarily prevent an individual from
securing employment, severe disabilities
can prevent or restrict employment
opportunities. As a result, many non-homeless
persons with disabilities are
dependent on Supplemental Security
Income ( SSI) or Social Security
Disability Insurance ( SSDI). As of June
2005, SSI provides $ 564 a month for an
individual and $ 869 for a couple. In
December 2004, there were 195,819 SSI
recipients in North Carolina, including
26,560 elderly and 169,259 disabled
persons. Many non- elderly persons with
disabilities are living in adult care homes
due to the lack of accessible and
affordable supportive housing in their
community. Elderly and frail elderly
households, on the other hand, may have
to leave their home due to the inability to
pay for home modifications as well as
inability to access in- home care services.
As the State of North Carolina continues
to implement mental health system
reform, which includes the downsizing
and closing of state institutions for
persons with disabilities, the need for
community- based supportive housing
will increase.
Unfortunately, due to limitations in the
collecting of data, many households that
by definition are special needs are not
counted as special needs by the partners
in their evaluations of their programs.
This is particularly true when elderly
households receive benefit. For
example, anecdotal evidence suggests
that the majority of households assisted
by the Scattered Site Housing program
of the Division of Community
Assistance are elderly homeowners.
However, since there are no provisions
in place at this time to collect data
pertaining to a householder’s age,
quantifying the percentage of households
to be assisted that are special needs is
difficult. DCA is looking to revise its
data collection methods so that an
accounting of special needs households
assisted, primarily with housing
rehabilitation, can be performed.
Activities to address the needs of
non- homeless persons with special
needs include:
Rent Assistance
Supportive Housing
Operating Assistance
Supportive Services
40
Rent Assistance
Population and Need
While supportive housing development
( new construction or acquisition and
rehabilitation) is one option to meet the
needs of non- homeless populations with
special needs, another activity that is
equally important is rental assistance. If
consumers are provided rental assistance
with supportive services, they are
empowered to find a home anywhere in
their community without losing
supportive services.
Summary of Existing Programs
Currently, the state HOPWA Program
has six HOPWA Project Sponsors that
provide a total of 110 tenant- based rental
assistance vouchers. These sponsors are
within the 92 counties served by the
state program.
There are a number of Shelter Plus Care
vouchers dedicated to persons living
with HIV/ AIDS ( PLWHA) throughout
the state. Also, Durham County has
permanent facility based programs with
a total of 15 units dedicated to PLWHA
and their families.
The NCHFA provides 10- years of rent
assistance to households referred by the
Department of Health and Human
Services who live in developments
funded with tax credits. A valuable
feature of this program is the 10- year
period which each household may
receive the assistance; this provides
stability and long- term affordability to
households who could otherwise not
afford rent.
How Activity Meets Need
Rental assistance is critical for low-income
non- homeless persons with
disabilities or the elderly. Without it
their incomes are often simply too low to
cover housing costs.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
Although non- homeless persons with
special needs may apply for Section 8
Rental Assistance Vouchers from their
local housing authorities, the supply of
Vouchers is far too small to assist every
eligible household. Long waiting lists
and the absence of preferences for this
population at many housing authorities
hinders access to Section 8 vouchers. In
addition, many persons with
disabilities may not meet screening
criteria because of poor credit, lack of
rental history or because of a criminal
record.
Expected Units ( Number of Households)
and Funding
Between 2006 and 2010, it is expected
that the HOPWA program will provide
tenant- based rental assistance to 150
households in North Carolina using $ 1
million in HOPWA funds.
NCHFA expects to provide $ 6.25
million in HOME Match funding for rent
assistance to 680 formerly- homeless or
disabled households in tax credit
Objective: Provide rent assistance to
150 households using approximately
$ 1 million in HOPWA funds between
2006 and 2010, and provide 10 years
of rent assistance to 680 households
in Tax Credit developments with
$ 6.25 million in HOME Match.
41
developments. This funding will be
allocated to the program between 2006
and 2010, and each household will
receive rent assistance for ten years.
Supportive Housing
Population and Need
Affordable supportive housing is a high
priority need for non- homeless persons
with disabilities or the elderly at or
below 30 percent of median income in
urban areas and between zero and 50
percent in rural areas. It is a high
priority need because this population
experiences the most severe housing cost
burden and has the most difficulty
finding and maintaining affordable and
accessible housing without community
supports. The need for supportive
housing is driven by several factors:
1) lack of affordable community- based
housing for persons with disabilities
who rely on SSI or SSDI for income;
2) increase in number of people with
severe and persistent mental illness
who need community based housing
due to the downsizing of the state
institutions ( mental health reform)
and the Olmstead decision;
3) large number of ex- offenders, many
of whom have substance abuse
problems and/ or HIV/ AIDS;
4) large number of persons with
HIV/ AIDS who live below poverty
and whose health is compromised by
the lack of stable, affordable
housing;
5) increasing emphasis on
independence and empowerment for
consumers with disabilities;
6) increasing need for housing that
serves persons with dual diagnosis,
such as HIV/ AIDS and substance
abuse;
7) more than 10,000 developmentally
disabled adults who are now living
with aging parents and caregivers
who are no longer able to provide
adequate care;
8) more than 4,000 non- elderly adults,
many of whom have severe mobility
impairments, who now live in adult
care homes, but could live more
independently; and
9) increasing number of elderly and
frail elderly who have mobility
impairments and who need home
modifications as well as in- home
services.
How Activity Meets Need
The development of affordable and
accessible supportive housing, both
transitional and permanent, enables non-homeless
populations to achieve
independence and to pay for housing and
other daily activities of life. Supportive
housing can include a range of models
and serve a variety of populations.
Supportive housing can be developed as
stand alone units or as units within a
larger development, or as single family
homes, duplexes, or multifamily
structures.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
Supportive housing development,
whether new construction or acquisition
Objective: Develop 400 units of
supportive housing for non- homeless
persons with disabilities using $ 4
million in HOME and $ 4 million from
the Housing Trust Fund between 2006
and 2010.
42
and rehabilitation, is typically a complex
undertaking that faces several challenges
such as:
1) need for multiple funding sources,
with different rules and match
requirements;
2) predevelopment costs that may not
be covered by funding sources;
3) lack of housing development
experience on the part of nonprofit
organizations;
4) the absence of nonprofit
organizations in some areas of the
state, such as Eastern North
Carolina;
5) discriminatory treatment of
supportive housing ( including
transitional housing) by local
jurisdictions, as well as Nimby- ism;
6) lack of legal resources on the part of
nonprofit organizations to challenge
discriminatory practices;
7) high development costs, including
impact fees;
8) lack of state enabling legislation for
inclusionary zoning;
9) state law which enables local
governments to impose spacing
requirements for group homes;
10) outdated zoning definitions that treat
supportive housing as an institutional
use, thereby triggering inappropriate
building code requirements; and
11) lack of zoning definitions for
specific types of supportive housing,
such as single room occupancy
developments.
In addition, supportive housing tenants
must have access to an array of
supportive services that are often
provided by different agencies with
different eligibility requirements.
Summary of Existing Programs
The State of North Carolina is able to
provide partial funding to develop
supportive housing ( transitional and
permanent supportive housing) through
the NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program. Many times,
this program is used in conjunction with
other federal and state resources, such as
the HUD 811 program and the North
Carolina Division of Mental Health
Community Capacity Funds. The
NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program has relied on the
North Carolina Housing Trust Fund as
its funding source, but is increasingly
using HOME funds.
The State of North Carolina’s Qualified
Allocation Plan requires LIHTC owners
to target 10 percent of the units in their
developments to persons with disabilities
or homeless populations. To support this
commitment, developers partner with
local lead agencies who agree to be the
conduit for tenant referrals and to
provide, coordinate or act as a referral
source for the array of community
services ( both Medicaid and non-
Medicaid funded) available to assist
persons with disabilities to live
successfully in the community.
Furthermore, developers make an
additional 5 percent of the units in their
development fully accessible, on top of
the number of units required by exiting
law and building codes. Accessible
units include a higher than minimum
standard of accessible design features,
including curb less showers and 5’ by 5’
clear floor space around toilets.
The Division of Community Assistance
allocates Community Development
Block Grant ( CDBG) funds for new
43
construction by funding the required
infrastructure for new development.
There are a number of different program
requirements based upon the type of
housing to be constructed. Though DCA
does not offer a category specifically
targeted towards supportive housing,
past projects in the Housing
Development category have been for
supportive housing. Housing
Development funds can be utilized for
multi- family projects aimed at residents
who, for one reason or another, will
continue to rent. DCA will provide for
installation of public infrastructure
( water and sewer lines are automatically
eligible for funding; streets, sidewalks
and drainage may be funded on a case by
case basis), the removal of hazardous
material, acquisition of vacant land ( by
an eligible nonprofit) or vacant historic
buildings ( by an eligible nonprofit or
for- profit developer), and certain
rehabilitation activities on a case- by- case
basis.
In addition, DCA works collaboratively
with the North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency's ( NCHFA) Tax
Credit/ Rental Production Program ( RPP)
for multi- unit rental housing by
providing infrastructure related funds to
some of these development projects.
NCHFA provides funds for home
modifications for the frail and elderly.
For more information on these services,
please see the section on high priority
homeowners.
Expected Units and Funding
It is estimated that North Carolina will
be able to develop a total of 400 units of
supportive housing for non- homeless
persons with special needs using
approximately $ 4 million in HOME and
$ 4 million from the Housing Trust Fund
under the NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program during 2006-
2010. Assuming a per- unit cost of
$ 60,000, it is expected that the total
development cost will be $ 24 million
with NCHFA SHDP providing one- third
of the funding.
DCA aims to provide at least $ 2 million
each year for new housing construction
through its Housing Development
program. These funds may be used for
the construction of supportive housing,
though that decision is left up to the
local government and/ or local nonprofits
and developers. There is no set- aside in
the Housing Development program for
supportive housing, so estimating the
number of these housing units that will
be constructed as supportive housing
units is dubious at best. DCA’s goal for
creation of new rental housing units is
detailed in the high, medium, and low
priority renter sections of the strategic
plan.
Operating Assistance
Population and Need
As nonprofit organizations develop more
community- based supportive housing for
persons with disabilities or the low-income
elderly with special needs, the
lack of operating assistance has become
a larger problem. Whether the housing
is transitional or permanent, the central
issue is how the provider can pay for
monthly operating costs while charging
Objective: From 2006- 2010, an
estimated $ 2 million of HOPWA funds
will be used for operating expenses for
dedicated housing facilities.
44
rents affordable to tenants with incomes
below 30 percent of median income.
Many residents rely on Supplemental
Security Income, which currently pays
an individual $ 579 per month. At this
rate an affordable rent for SSI recipients
is $ 173 and yet the typical cost to
operate housing runs about $ 300 per
door per month. Some of the challenges
are as follows:
1) the State of North Carolina does not
supplement SSI payments except for
residents of licensed facilities;
2) SSI payments are not sufficient to
pay the HUD defined fair market
rent for a one bedroom apartment
anywhere in the State;
3) credit and criminal issues make it
difficult for SSI recipients to obtain
public housing or Section 8 vouchers
from the local housing authority;
4) persons diagnosed solely with
substance abuse disorders are not
eligible for SSI; and
5) operating assistance is currently only
available through programs such as
HUD 811 and HUD 202, all of
which fund only a small number of
units each year.
How Activity Meets Need
HOPWA funded operating assistance
provides adult day care/ day health
programs and family care homes with
the financial resources to pay the
operating costs for the day- to- day
program functions serving persons living
with HIV/ AIDS. The availability of
funding for these facilities provides
clients with permanent housing and
access to enhanced services.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
The State of North Carolina provides
operating assistance, State and County
Special Assistance, to residential
facilities that serve persons with
disabilities and the elderly, but only in
licensed facilities.
Many individuals could live more
independently if they had the ability to
pay the difference between their
extremely low income and the cost of
decent housing.
The State HOPWA program funds two
Family Care Homes that provide 24-
hour care for person in the acute stages
of HIV/ AIDS who cannot live
independently, but there are not enough
HOPWA funds to provide assistance to
all interested facilities. There is no
required state match. Based on the
recent competitive HOPWA reques

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................. 1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................. 12
PROCESS........................................................................................................................ 13
NORTH CAROLINA STRATEGIC PLAN .................................................................... 16
SUMMARY........................................................................................................................ .. 17
HOMELESS PERSONS..................................................................................................................... 23
PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS................................................................................................. 39
HIGH PRIORITY RENTERS ............................................................................................................ 47
HIGH PRIORITY HOMEOWNERS.................................................................................................. 55
MEDIUM PRIORITY RENTERS...................................................................................................... 65
MEDIUM PRIORITY HOMEOWNERS........................................................................................... 72
LOW PRIORITY RENTERS ............................................................................................................. 80
HOME BUYERS......................................................................................................................... ...... 87
LOW PRIORITY HOMEOWNERS................................................................................................... 95
LOW INCOME HOUSING TAX CREDITS................................................................... 102
LEAD BASED PAINT ASSESSMENT ............................................................................ 103
BARRIERS TO AFFORDABLE HOUSING................................................................... 107
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES ......................................................... 111
ANTI- POVERTY STRATEGIES ..................................................................................... 118
INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE..................................................................................... 120
COORDINATION.............................................................................................................. 125
MONITORING STANDARDS.......................................................................................... 129
HOUSING MARKET ANALYSIS AND NEEDS ASSESSMENT.............................. 133
NEEDS ASSESSMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................... 134
DEMOGRAPHICS............................................................................................................. 137
ECONOMY........................................................................................................................ 144
HOMELESSNESS.............................................................................................................. 155
HOUSING OVERVIEW.................................................................................................... 164
RENTAL HOUSING.......................................................................................................... 178
HOUSING FOR HOME BUYERS ................................................................................... 199
OWNER- OCCUPIED HOUSING .................................................................................... 207
MANUFACTURED HOUSING........................................................................................ 220
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT.................................................................................... 228
CONSULTATIONS ....................................................................................................... 236
3
PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.......................................................................................... 239
CONTRIBUTORS.......................................................................................................... 241
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 242
APPENDIX A: North Carolina Estimated Housing Needs............................................ 242
APPENDIX B: Descriptions of Partner Programs ......................................................... 243
APPENDIX C: Removal of Regulatory Barriers............................................................ 254
APPENDIX D: Homeless Facilities Inventory ................................................................ 259
APPENDIX E: County Designations ............................................................................... 261
APPENDIX F: Summary of NC Housing Problems....................................................... 262
APPENDIX G: Summary of Condition Problems .......................................................... 263
APPENDIX H: Summary of Consolidated Plan Regional Meetings............................. 264
APPENDIX I: Summary of Needs Assessment Regional Meetings................................ 272
APPENDIX J: Needs Assessment Definitions ................................................................. 275
APPENDIX K: General Affordable Housing Definitions ............................................... 277
APPENDIX L: Analysis of Impediments and Fair Housing Plan ................................. 286
1
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The North Carolina Consolidated Plan 2006- 2010 serves two purposes. First, it is the
planning document that guides the Consolidated Plan partners in addressing housing and
community development needs across the state for the next five years. Second, it is a tool
that is used by the Consolidated Plan partners to inform various stakeholders -- including
the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD), state and local
officials, non- profit and advocacy organizations, and the residents of North Carolina -- of
the need for improving the living conditions for our state’s low- to- moderate income
population. The Consolidated Plan partners run programs under the four funding sources
for which HUD requires this plan: Community Development Block Grants ( CDBG)
managed by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Community
Assistance ( DCA); HOME funds managed by the North Carolina Housing Finance
Agency ( NCHFA); and Housing Opportunities for Persons with Aids ( HOPWA) and
Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG) both managed by the North Carolina Department of
Health and Human Services ( DHHS).
The plan is organized into three major parts:
The first section is the strategic plan itself, which is derived from the findings of the
Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment. The Strategic Plan outlines the
goals, objectives, and activities that the Consolidated Plan partners will undertake
and strive for over the next five years to meet the needs of North Carolina’s low- to-moderate
income citizens.
The middle section describes other regulatory requirements of the Consolidated Plan
partners and how those requirements will be addressed over the next five years.
These requirements include such directives as lead- based paint abatement, use of
low- income housing tax credits, and collaboration among the partners and with
outside organizations.
The last section of the plan, the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment,
details the housing and community development needs of low- to- moderate income
residents statewide.
In creating the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment, the Consolidated Plan
partners first studied data regarding housing conditions, availability, cost, and other
housing indicators. Additional factors were then considered: things that affect the living
standards of North Carolinians other than housing, such as access to clean water,
employment and other economic factors, and demographic changes seen in our state over
the last ten years. From this data, a picture of the needs of low- to- moderate income
North Carolinians was formed.
2
However, the picture would not be complete without qualitative data describing the
priorities and needs of North Carolinians as they themselves see them. During the fall of
2004, Consolidated Plan partner staff held fifteen meetings around the state to present the
findings of the quantitative study and determine if these match what local service
providers experienced in their communities. The meetings produced qualitative data on
the needs of residents by region. These two sets of data painted the picture of the housing
and community development needs for North Carolinians for the next five years.
eds for North Carolinians for the next five years.
The Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment identifies many areas in which
low- to- moderate income residents are lacking resources in order to live in safe, decent,
and affordable housing. Based upon this research, North Carolina has a significant need
for housing assistance for its low- income population. According to 2000 Census data,
more than 358,000 renter households and more than 497,000 owner households in North
Carolina had a housing problem. 1 Among North Carolina’s low- income population,
more than 320,000 renter households and 330,000 owner households had a housing
problem ( according to 2000 Census data). The primary problem North Carolinians
experience is cost burdening. Of all households with a housing problem across the state,
cost was the problem for 84% of renters and 21% of owners. The Consolidated Plan
partners see the alleviation of cost burdening as a major goal over the next five years for
the state’s housing programs.
Figure ES1: Percent of each population group with
housing problems.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Renter Ow ner Renter Ow ner Renter Ow ner
Extremely Low -
Income
Very Low - Income Low - Income
Cost Burdened Severely Cost Burdened Some Other Problem
In order to be most effective, and in acknowledgement of the scarce resources available
to meet the housing and community development needs across the state, available
resources must be targeted to the population most in need. Based on the findings of the
Consolidated Plan partners, the primary need for housing assistance is for those North
1 The United States Census Bureau defines a housing problem as either cost burdening, overcrowding, or
inadequate kitchen or plumbing facilities.
3
Carolinians earning below 30 percent of area median income. Due to the rising cost of
housing across the state in recent years, and income levels that are generally below
$ 10,000 per year, the ability to afford any sort of safe, decent, and sanitary housing for
this population is extremely problematic. Many of the people in this population are those
on Supplemental Security Income ( SSI), for whom the monthly stipend with which all of
life’s necessities are supposed to be provided is less than $ 600 a month. Affording a
decent apartment on such a low income is nearly impossible without some sort of
subsidy.
The data also showed that the affordability mismatch is nearly as dire for those earning
between 31 and 50 percent of median area income. Many of these residents could be
classified as the “ working poor”, earning less than eight dollars an hour. Although
income for this population is higher, Figure ES2 shows that cost burdening is not
significantly diminished from that of the extremely low income group. Therefore, a
substantial subsidy is essential to help ensure that these residents are able to find safe,
decent, and sanitary housing.
4
Figure ES2: Estimated Housing Needs
North Carolina Estimated Housing Needs
Type of Household % MFI Total Units
Needed Available Resources Total Estimated to
Meet Entire Need
0- 30% of MFI 43,296 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 865,920,000
31- 51% of MFI 11,410 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 228,200,000
Small Related
Renters
51- 80% of MFI 7,013 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 140,260,000
0- 30% of MFI 9,727 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 194,540,000
31- 51% of MFI 5,629 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 112,580,000
Large Related
Renters
51- 80% of MFI 10,118 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 202,360,000
0- 30% of MFI 19,110 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 382,200,000
31- 51% of MFI 5,733 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Elderly Renters Fund $ 114,660,000
51- 80% of MFI 1,787 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 35,740,000
0- 30% of MFI 44,557 CDBG, HOME, ESG, HOPWA, LIHTC,
NC Housing Trust Fund $ 891,140,000
31- 51% of MFI 13,691 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
All Other Renters Fund $ 273,820,000
51- 80% of MFI 3,586 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 71,720,000
0- 30% of MFI 79,207 CDBG, HOME, NC Housing Trust Fund $ 1,584,140,000
31- 51% of MFI 48,929 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Owner Fund $ 978,580,000
51- 80% of MFI 44,067 CDBG, HOME, LIHTC, NC Housing Trust
Fund $ 881,340,000
Foreclosure prevention is another strongly identified need. From 1998 to 2003, the
number of households statewide that filed for foreclosure tripled. According to local
service providers, this need results from the structural change in North Carolina’s
economy from one dependent on agriculture and non- durable goods manufacturing, such
as textiles, to one that focuses primarily on services and higher- end manufacturing.
Although North Carolina’s economy grew rapidly during the 1990s, decline in many
traditional industrial sectors, such as furniture, textiles, and tobacco, put a strain on many
families’ ability to afford housing.
This change in the state’s economy is not the only shift that was evident over the past ten
years. North Carolina has experienced tremendous immigration in the last decade,
primarily of three types. The first group is made of young professionals with jobs in the
state’s growing industries such as biotech and pharmaceuticals; these new residents are
drawn to the state’s urban centers because of their economic opportunities. The second
5
group is an influx of retirees looking to take advantage of North Carolina’s natural beauty
and mild climate; they are drawn to the state’s mountain or coastal regions. The third
group generally emigrates from outside the country and is looking to North Carolina as a
place for a new start to their lives. They bring hope of economic prosperity and a
willingness to work long hours in difficult jobs. These new immigrants, the families of
workers displaced from traditional industries, and all low and moderate income residents
in need of housing or community development assistance are the target groups for the
Consolidated Plan partners.
North Carolina’s homeless population has grown in recent years. A point- in- time count
taken on December 15, 2003 found 9,687 homeless persons statewide. The point- in- time
count of January 26, 2005 recorded 11,165 homeless persons in North Carolina.
Furthermore, a significant number of the state’s homeless population are children; reports
from ESG recipients indicate that at least 13% of North Carolina’s homeless persons are
children.
In the next five years, North Carolina is likely to need more rental assistance, new
construction of affordable and accessible rental housing, and rehabilitation and/ or
preservation of existing affordable housing— particularly to increase affordable and
accessible housing opportunities to those earning less than 30% of median family
income.
The primary community development need indicated by local service providers is for
clean water and appropriate wastewater disposal for residential areas, whether by public
sewer lines or repair or replacement of on- site wastewater systems. Access to clean
water is especially problematic in rural areas of our state where households must depend
on personal or community wells. Contamination, poor water quality, and the shrinking of
some aquifers have made water quality so poor in some areas that public health is
threatened. For many families repairing or replacing an on- site wastewater disposal
system is simply cost prohibitive. Failing septic systems and straight piping of waste into
streams or fields are a threat to both public and environmental health.
As stated earlier, the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment was used to create
the goals, objectives, and strategies of the strategic plan. Based on the severity of need,
the Consolidated Plan partners assigned priorities to populations differentiated by
income, tenure, and urban/ rural status. 2 Figure ES3 displays the priority assignments for
each category of household in the state.
2 For purpose of this plan, urban areas are defined as all CDBG entitlement areas in the state. A CDBG
entitlement area is a municipality or county that receives CDBG funds directly from the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development, and does not participate in the statewide Small Cities
program. These areas include two counties ( Wake and Cumberland) and 23 municipalities: Asheville,
Burlington, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Concord, Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Goldsboro,
Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, High Point, Jacksonville, Kannapolis, Lenoir, Morganton, Raleigh,
Rocky Mount, Salisbury, Wilmington, and Winston- Salem.
6
Figure ES3: Descriptions of Priority Populations
High Priority Need Medium Priority Need Lower Priority Need
Homeless Families and Individuals
Nonhomeless Persons with Special
Needs
Urban Renters Earning 0- 30% of
MFI
Rural Renters Earning 0- 50% of
MFI
Existing Urban Homeowners
Earning 0- 30% of MFI
Existing Rural Homeowners
Earning 0- 50% of MFI*
Urban Renters Earning 31- 50% of
MFI
Rural Renters Earning 51- 60% of
MFI
Existing Urban Homeowners
Earning 31- 50% of MFI
Existing Rural Homeowners
Earning 0- 50% of MFI*
Urban Renters Earning 51- 80% of
MFI
Rural Renters Earning 61- 80% of
MFI
Existing Homeowners Earning 51-
80% Median Family Income
Potential Homebuyers Earning 30-
80% of MFI whose needs are not
met by the market
* Existing Rural Homeowners are differentiated in priority by type of activity and/ or type of household ( elderly are considered high
priority, non- elderly are medium priority).
The need of each type of household will be addressed by at least one of the four
Consolidated Plan partners over the next five years. The Strategic Plan describes each
element and activity that will be utilized by the Consolidated Plan partners to address
these needs. Figure ES4, on the following page, summarizes the strategies to be
employed to address the needs for each population group by the Consolidated Plan
partners over the next five years. Additionally, the estimated dollar amount to be spent
on each activity from 2006- 2010 is provided. 3
3 These dollar amounts assume no major changes to federal funding of the Consolidated Plan partners’
programs from 2006- 2010.
7
Figure ES4: Total Funding Estimates for Each Priority
Need Category
( For a list of programs/ funding sources mentioned here, please see Appendix B. Table excludes Mortgage Revenue
Bond and Mortgage Credit Certificate financing.)
Homeless Persons Medium- priority Renters Low- priority Renters
Operating Costs for Homeless Providers $ 10,000,000 Financing of Rental Rehabilitation $ 88,020,000 Financing of Rental Rehabilitation $ 31,875,000
ESG Tax Credits, PLP, RPP, CN, RS Tax Credits, PLP, RPP, CN, RS
Supportive Services $ 800,000 Financing of New Construction $ 270,550,000 Financing of New Construction $ 99,350,000
ESG Tax Credits, RPP, CN, RS Tax Credits, RPP, HD
Emergency Shelter Construction and $ 1,000,000 subtotal $ 358,570,000 subtotal $ 131,225,000
Rehabilitation
SHDP Medium- priority Owners Homebuyers
Supportive Housing $ 8,000,000 Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 16,320,000 Individual Development Accounts $ 8,750,000
SHDP SFR, SSH, CN, RS DCA's IDA, NCHFA's IDAP
Homeless Prevention $ 5,250,000 Replacement Housing $ 14,600,000 First and Second Mortgages $ 42,600,000
ESG, HOPWA SSH, CN, RS ROM, NHLP, SHLP
subtotal $ 25,050,000 Refinancing $ 0 Downpayment Assistance $ 6,310,000
none DAP ( ADDI)
Non- Homeless Persons with Special Needs** Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure $ 10,650,000 Financing of New Construction $ 3,150,000
Rent Assistance $ 7,250,000 IF Hook- up, CN, RS HD
HOPWA, KEY subtotal $ 41,570,000 subtotal $ 60,810,000
Supportive Housing $ 8,000,000
SHDP Low- priority Owners
Operating Assistance $ 2,000,000 Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 3,905,000
HOPWA SFR, CN, RS
Supportive Services $ 300,000 Replacement Housing $ 450,000
HOPWA CN, RS
subtotal $ 17,550,000 Refinancing $ 0
none
High- priority Renters Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure $ 1,800,000
Rent Assistance $ 0 IF Hook- up, CN, RS
none subtotal $ 6,155,000
Financing of Rental Rehabilitation $ 79,243,000
CN, RS, SSH, Tax Credits, PLP, RPP
Financing of New Construction $ 235,550,000
HD, Tax Credits, RPP
subtotal $ 314,793,000
High- priority Owners
Urgent Repair $ 12,600,000
URP, SSH
Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 35,600,000
SFR, SSH, CN, RS
Replacement Housing $ 32,000,000
SSH, CN, RS
Foreclosure Prevention Activities $ 2,780,000
HPPP, MRB
Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure $ 25,100,000
IF Hook- up, CN, RS
subtotal $ 108,080,000
Total High- priority Funding $ 465,473,000 Total Medium- priority Funding $ 400,140,000 Total Low- priority Funding $ 198,190,000
** Includes the following:
Persons with disabilities
Low- income elderly persons
Persons with HIV/ AIDS
Table excludes Mortgage Revenue Bond and Mortgage Credit Certificate financing.
High Medium Low
8
The Consolidated Plan partners plan to target the largest amount of funding to high-priority
needs – over $ 465 million dollars from 2006- 2010 in federal, state, and private
funds. Medium and low priority populations and activities will also be addressed, with
an expected $ 400 million to be spent to address medium priority needs and $ 198 million
to address low priority needs.
Figure ES4 depicts the priority of needs ( high, medium, or low) among populations in the
state as determined through the Housing Market Analysis and Needs Assessment, ranked
according to severity and prevalence of need, and the allocation of funding. Although the
Consolidated Plan partner agencies attempt to match funding levels to priority of needs in
the state, they must also balance other considerations. These include:
· The amounts of various funding sources and the federal and state regulations
governing the permitted uses of these funds.
· The capability and willingness of partners around the state to undertake various
housing or community development activities.
· Continuity of programs established when priorities were different.
Funding levels of federal programs have perhaps the greatest impact in creating a
mismatch between need and dollars allocated. For example, the ESG program
exclusively serves the high- priority population of the very low income homeless and the
Mortgage Revenue Bond ( MRB) program assists the low- priority category of moderate
income first time homebuyers. Yet, in 2004, the ESG program for North Carolina
received only a $ 2.3 million allocation from HUD while the MRB program was able to
access $ 160 million from tax- exempt bond sales, for mortgages over approximately the
same period. None of the funds from the MRB program can be used to assist the
homeless – or to do anything but provide mortgages with a shallow interest subsidy to
qualifying buyers – but the relative funding levels of these two programs results in more
funding going toward a low- priority activity.
Regulatory requirements also restrict use of various funding sources. For example:
· Mortgage Credit Certificate ( MCC) and Mortgage Revenue Bond ( MRB) funds
must be used for homeownership.
· Equity from Federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits ( LIHTC) and State tax
credits can only assist in rental development and rehabilitation.
· Community Development Block Grant ( CDBG) funds cannot be used for the
construction of permanent housing ( although infrastructure supporting permanent
housing is permitted). CDBG also cannot be used for rent assistance, another
high priority need.
· HOME funds cannot be used for the construction of homeless shelters, nor for
rent assistance lasting longer than two years.
· American Dream Downpayment Initiative ( ADDI) funds must be used on
homeownership.
9
· Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS ( HOPWA) funds must serve
households or individuals with HIV or AIDS.
· Emergency Shelter Grant ( ESG) funding must serve homeless populations.
Readers will notice that Homebuyers fall into the Low Priority category in Figure ES3.
They will also notice that, of the funding sources discussed in Figure ES4, $ 60.81 million
is proposed to enable low- income households to purchase homes. This is 5.7% of the
funds in Figure ES4, and 23.1% of the funds about which the State has discretion. ( The
State has discretion about using HOME, CDBG, and funds appropriated by the General
Assembly for either high, medium, or low priority activities. The activities funded by
ESG, HOPWA, MRB funds, MCC funds, Duke Power funds, and Tax Credit equity are
limited enough that the state does not have the option to redirect those funds toward other
activities in a different priority category.)
Readers will also notice that $ 25.05 million is dedicated to serving homeless populations.
While this is only 2.4% of the funds reflected in Figure ES4, it is worth noting that an
indeterminate amount of the funds serving high priority renters ( rental rehabilitation and
new construction) also serve homeless populations, and a very large percent of the Urgent
Repair funds and Foreclosure Prevention funds for high priority homeowners prevent
homelessness in households that are at great risk of becoming homeless.
Finally, readers will notice that $ 17.55 million in Figure ES4 is identified as serving non-homeless
households with special needs. However, there are other programs that serve
this population but cannot be labeled as specifically for non- homeless households with
special needs. For example, NCHFA limits its Urgent Repair program, a program of $ 10
million, to households where at least one member has special needs ( either is elderly or
disabled). The program is not specifically included in the Special Needs section because
it is primarily considered a homeowner repair program. Another example is the Scattered
Site Housing program from DCA. DCA plans to spend up to $ 55 million on housing
rehabilitation and replacement over the next five years. More than likely, the majority of
these residents will be either elderly or be categorized as special needs. However, since a
special need is not mandated for the household to be included in the program, the activity
has been listed as targeting high and medium priority homeowners. In addition
NCHFA’s Urgent Repair program and the programs identified in the table as serving
special needs populations, the Agency also requires that 10% of the LIHTC units have
accessible design ( utilizing approximately $ 79.24 million in investment). These units
benefit some number of households with special needs, but the number is unknown.
The primary strategy to address homelessness will continue to be the provision of
operating funds to local homeless shelter providers through the ESG program. Although
ESG funding has more flexibility than the state is utilizing, funding for daily operations is
in high demand, so the ESG will continue to be used for that need. However, recognizing
needs other than operating assistance, the ESG program will provide over $ 1,000,000
over the next five years to supportive services and homeless prevention. NCHFA,
10
through its Supportive Housing Development Program ( SHDP), will provide funds for
emergency shelter construction and rehabilitation and for construction of new supportive
housing developments.
The SHDP will also provide approximately $ 8 million for non- homeless persons with
special needs, 4 also a high- priority population. The Consolidated Plan partners will also
assist these residents by providing rent assistance through one of two programs: the
HOPWA program and the KEY program, a collaboration of NCHFA and the North
Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. HOPWA will also help persons
with special needs by providing over $ 2,000,000 in funds from 2006- 2010 for operating
assistance for supportive housing developments and supportive services for persons with
HIV/ AIDS.
Renters will be assisted primarily through the financing of new construction of rental
units to meet the needs of low- income residents. The financing and subsidy of these
developments will come from NCHFA’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program,
NCHFA’s Rental Production Program, and DCA’s Housing Development program. In
addition, DCA and NCHFA over the next five years will target over $ 200 million to
rehabilitation of rental units occupied by low- to- moderate residents through various
programs.
!
The Consolidated Plan partners will also consider low- to- moderate homeowners an
important target population. Improving the housing stock through comprehensive
rehabilitation or replacement will be the primary method the Consolidated Plan partners
will use to address the needs of qualifying homeowners. Elderly residents will be
considered high priority for rehabilitation or replacement of their home. When
emergencies arise, NCHFA’s Urgent Repair program and DCA’s Scattered Site Housing
program will provide funds for emergency repairs in order to prevent residents from
having to leave their homes and possibly becoming homeless. DCA expects to provide
over $ 35 million to either install new public water and/ or wastewater lines, install
connections to existing public lines, or repair or replace on- site systems. Residents
suffering from poor water quality, negligible water supply, and/ or failing septic systems,
creating a danger to public health, will be considered a high priority and will receive the
majority of the funding. Furthermore, NCHFA expects to devote over $ 2.5 million to
foreclosure prevention activities to further stem the tide against potential homelessness.
The Consolidated Plan partners will also address homebuyers whose needs are not served
by the conventional real estate market, though serving this population is considered a low
priority. The majority of funding for this population will come in the form of first and
4 Persons with special needs are defined as persons with disabilities, low- income elderly persons, and
persons with HIV/ AIDS.
11
second mortgages from NCHFA. Both NCHFA and DCA will participate in the
Individual Development Account program for first- time homebuyers, providing financial
literacy, homebuyer education training, and down payment assistance for qualifying
applicants. NCHFA will also provide down payment assistance from the federal
American Dream Downpayment Initiative funds. Finally, DCA will provide up to $ 3.15
million in funds to help lower the cost of new single family housing construction for low-to-
moderate income residents.
"
The Strategic Plan also addresses other strategies than those outlined in Figure ES4. DCA
will implement numerous community development strategies, such as capacity building
and development of human capital, aimed at improving the community fabric and social
cohesiveness necessary to keep neighborhoods thriving. Furthermore, DCA and the
Commerce Finance Center will continue to implement economic development activities
through CDBG funds, providing and retaining good- paying jobs in our state’s rural areas
that have been hardest by the recent economic downturn. NCHFA will continue its Low
Income Housing Tax Credit program ( included in Figure ES4), as well as efforts to lower
the incidence of lead poisoning from lead- based paint. The Consolidated Plan partners
have identified a number of barriers to affordable housing, as well as goals and objectives
to help eliminate those barriers and ease these unnecessary burdens keeping decent,
affordable housing elusive in many of our communities statewide.
The North Carolina Consolidated Plan 2006- 2010 serves as a blueprint to addressing the
housing and community development needs of low- to- moderate income North
Carolinians. Assuredly, the limited resources of the Consolidated Plan partners are not
sufficient to eradicate all of these needs. However, the partners feel certain that by
meeting the goals and objectives of this plan, significant strides will be made to improve
the lives of many of our state’s most needy residents.
12
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Consolidated Plan partners are four agencies that work together to improve housing,
economic, and living conditions for North Carolina’s low- income population. They are
the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance ( a division of the North Carolina
Department of Commerce), the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, the North
Carolina Office of Economic Opportunity, and the AIDS Care Unit of the North Carolina
Department of Health and Human Services. Following is listed the directors of the
Consolidated Plan partners, whose leadership and vision were a driving force in the
writing of this plan.
Evelyn Foust, HIV/ STD Prevention and Care Branch Head, North Carolina Department
of Health and Human Services
Bob Kucab, Director, North Carolina Housing Finance Agency
Gloria Nance- Sims, Director, North Carolina Division of Community Assistance
Lawrence Wilson, Chief, Office of Economic Opportunity
13
PROCESS
Although the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance, located within the state
Department of Commerce, is designated as the lead agency for this plan, it is a genuinely
collaborative effort of the partners – the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency, the
North Carolina Office of Economic Opportunity and the AIDS Care Unit of the North
Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. The strong partnership, mutual
respect, and dedication to a combined effort to improve the lives of all North Carolinians
truly made the consolidated planning process a worthwhile endeavor. A summary of
each agency and its focus follows.
The Division of Community Assistance: The Division of Community Assistance
( DCA) provides aid to North Carolina's local governments and nonprofit community
organizations in the areas of community development, growth management, economic
development, and public management through the Community Development Block Grant
( CDBG) program, the Office of Urban Development, and through direct technical
assistance to local governments. The federally funded Community Development Block
Grant program provides funds to local governments for community and economic
development to benefit low- and moderate- income people. Typical projects may include
housing rehabilitation, new affordable housing, neighborhood infrastructure
improvements such as installation of water and sewer lines, adaptive reuse of older
buildings, and small business development. Awarding of grants in the Community
Revitalization category, which includes the Concentrated Needs and Revitalization
Strategies programs, is a competitive process. All other grant categories are awarded
through a non- competitive process.
The new Office of Urban Development houses the state’s Main Street Program, Small
Towns Initiative, and Urban Redevelopment programs. The Main Street Program helps
to strengthen North Carolina's downtowns as a focal point for community life and
economic activity. Main Street staff works with communities, local businesses and state
agencies to strengthen downtown revitalization efforts. The Small Towns Initiative,
funded by a grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds foundation, provides technical assistance
and design planning for communities wishing to grow their downtown business district as
a way to spur economic development, but may be too small or not yet developed enough
for the Main Street program. The Urban Redevelopment program provides grants of up
to $ 1,000,000, using de- programmed CDBG Economic Development funds, for large-scale
redevelopment projects in rural downtowns.
The Community Planning Program has staff in seven regional offices to assist local
governments and community organizations with a variety of tasks, including: strategic
planning, growth management planning and ordinances, capital improvement planning,
goal setting, program development, and intergovernmental planning and coordination.
The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency: Formed in 1973 by the General
Assembly, the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency exists to create affordable
14
housing opportunities for North Carolinians whose needs are not met by the market. It
creates these opportunities in a variety of ways, ranging from helping nonprofit
organizations, local governments, and for- profit entities develop affordable homes and
apartments to providing low- cost mortgages for first- time home buyers. It operates
federal and state housing programs including the Mortgage Revenue Bond program, the
Housing Credit Program, and the North Carolina Housing Trust Fund.
The HIV/ STD Prevention and Care Branch: The mission of the HIV/ STD Prevention
and Care Branch is to reduce and eventually eliminate morbidity and mortality due to
sexually transmitted diseases ( syphilis, gonorrhea and Chlamydia), Human
Immunodeficiency Virus ( HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ( AIDS),
and to assure that an up- to- date continuum of care services are available to all HIV-infected
individuals residing in North Carolina. The Unit administers the following
federal programs: Ryan White HIV C. A. R. E. Program, HIV Case Management Services,
Medicaid Community Alternatives Program ( CAP- AIDS), HIV Medications
Program/ AIDS Drug Assistance Program, and Housing Opportunities for Persons With
AIDS ( HOPWA). The AIDS Care Unit contracts with a variety of regional and local
community– based organizations, including HIV Care Consortia, public health
departments, home health agencies, hospitals, family care homes, independent living
apartments, transitional houses, housing authorities, AIDS service organizations, and
others for the provision of services through these programs.
The North Carolina HIV/ STD Prevention and Care Branch in general provides 1)
information on Sexually Transmitted Diseases ( STDs), HIV, and AIDS for individual
citizens, the media, policy makers, service providers and healthcare workers; 2) resources
for public health professionals and community- based organizations trained to assist in the
prevention of STDs ( including HIV/ AIDS); 3) STD treatment guidelines for health care
providers; 4) information about a variety of case management and care services available
to persons living with HIV/ AIDS; 5) statistics on STDs ( including HIV/ AIDS) in North
Carolina; 6) a collection of resources for public health prevention efforts directed toward
reducing the number of cases of HIV/ AIDS/ STDs in North Carolina; 7) information for
use in health policy planning, evaluation and research; and 8) presentations to special
interest groups.
Office of Economic Opportunity: The Office of Economic Opportunity ( OEO) is
housed in the Department of Health and Human Services. The Office helps low- income
families achieve economic self- sufficiency by administering three major federal
programs: the Community Services Block Grants Program, the Weatherization
Assistance Program and the Emergency Shelter Grants Program. The majority of funds
administered by OEO flows to local community action agencies and other community-based
organizations.
Created by the federal Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, the Community
Services Block Grant ( CSBG) Program provides a range of services designed to assist
low- income people to attain the skills, knowledge, and motivation necessary to achieve
self- sufficiency. The federal grant program permits a wide range of local program
15
activities to assist low- income participants in employment, education, better use of
available income, housing, emergency assistance, community involvement, and more
effective use of other programs. Thirty- six Community Action Agencies provide services
to low- income families throughout the State under the CSBG Program.
Funded through the U. S. Department of Energy, the Weatherization Assistance Program
assists low- wealth citizens in saving energy and reducing expenses through the
installation of energy conservation materials and the implementation of energy efficiency
measures in their homes. Priority is placed on providing assistance to senior citizens,
disabled persons and low- income families with children. A companion program, the
Heating and Air Repair and Replacement Program ( HARRP), was created in North
Carolina in 1995 through the use of Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
funds. HARRP provides funds to repair and, in some instances, replace heating and/ or
air conditioning systems in the homes of low- income families.
The Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG) Program improves the quality of existing
emergency homeless shelters, helps meet the costs of operating emergency shelters and
transitional housing programs, and provides certain essential social services to homeless
individuals and families with children so that they may improve their situations. The ESG
program also restricts the increase of homelessness through homeless prevention efforts.
The program is funded by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
( HUD).
16
NORTH CAROLINA STRATEGIC PLAN
Participating Agencies:
#
#
$ " %
"
$ # &
'
17
SUMMARY
Figure S. 1 outlines the major strategies to be used by the Consolidated Plan partners to
target the state’s housing and community development needs as identified in the Housing
Market Analysis and Needs Assessment ( beginning on page 133). In this plan there is a
differentiation between the needs and activities in rural and urban5 areas. During the
needs assessment process, it became clear that urban and rural North Carolina have
different needs across income levels and therefore different strategies will need to be
employed to address them. A further discussion of each of these target populations and
strategies is discussed in the body of the Strategic Plan.
Figure S. 1: Priorities table
5 For purpose of this plan, urban areas are defined as all CDBG entitlement areas in the state. A CDBG
entitlement area is a municipality or county that receives CDBG funds directly from the United States
Department of Housing and Urban Development, and does not participate in the statewide Small Cities
program. These areas include two counties ( Wake and Cumberland) and 23 municipalities: Asheville,
Burlington, Cary, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Concord, Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Goldsboro,
Greensboro, Greenville, Hickory, High Point, Jacksonville, Kannapolis, Lenoir, Morganton, Raleigh,
Rocky Mount, Salisbury, Wilmington, and Winston- Salem.
Homeless Persons Renters at 31- 50% Renters at 51- 80%
Operating Costs for Homeless Providers Financing of Rental Rehabilitation Financing of Rental Rehabilitation
Homeless Prevention Financing of New Construction Financing of New Construction
Supportive Services Homeowners at 31- 50% Homebuyers at 30- 80% in areas where
Emergency Shelter Construction and Rehabilitation Comprehensive Rehabilitation needs are not met by the market
Supportive Housing Refinancing Individual Development Accounts
Non- Homeless Persons w/ Special Needs** First and Second Mortgages
Rent Assistance Downpayment Assistance
Supportive housing Financing of New Construction
Operating Assistance Homeowners at 51- 80% where needs are
Supportive Services not met by market
Renters at 0- 30% Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Rent Assistance Refinancing
Financing of Rental Rehabilitation
Financing of New Construction
Homeowners at 0- 30%
Urgent Repair
Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Foreclosure Prevention Activities
Homeless Persons Renters at 51- 60% Renters at 61- 80%
Operating Costs for Homeless Providers Financing of Rental Rehabilitation Financing of new construction
Homeless Prevention Financing of New Construction Financing of rental rehabilitation
Supportive Services Homeowners at 0- 50% Homebuyers at 30- 80% in areas where
Emergency Shelter Construction and Rehabilitation Comprehensive Rehabilitation needs are not met by market
Supportive Housing for the Non- elderly Individual Development Accounts
Non- Homeless Persons w/ Special Needs** Replacement Housing First and Second Mortgages
Rent Assistance Refinancing Downpayment Assistance
Supportive Housing Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure Financing of New Construction
Operating Assistance Homeowners at 51- 80%
Supportive Services Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Renters at 0- 50% Refinancing
Rent Assistance Residential water/ sewer infrastructure
Financing of Rental Rehabilitation
Financing of New Construction
Homeowners at 0- 50%
Urgent Repair
Comprehensive Rehabilitation
Replacement Housing
Foreclosure Prevention Activities
Residential Water/ Sewer Infrastructure
( when danger to public health)
** Includes the following:
Persons with Disabilities
Low- income Elderly Persons
Persons with HIV/ AIDS
Rural
High Medium Low
Urban
18
Figures S. 2, S. 3, and S. 4 below describe the strategies and objectives that the
Consolidated Plan partners will address over the next five years. These tables and charts
also summarize the expected accomplishments of the Consolidated Plan partners from
2006- 2010. The background information for these numbers can be found in the body of
the strategic plan, beginning on page 17. The strategies and objectives of the
Consolidated Plan are designed to address the needs described in the Housing Market
Analysis and Needs Assessment, beginning on page 133, and the quantifiable numbers
resulting from the CHAS data tabulations done by the United States Census Bureau6 ( see
Appendix A).
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives
6 Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy figures come from the U. S. Census Bureau. The North
Carolina Estimated Housing Needs table ( Figure ES2, page 7) tabulates the worst case need scenario for the
state.
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 1.1: Provide up to $ 250,000 in ESG funds for financial assistance to approximately
5,000 households over the next five years to pay late rent, mortgage payments, first month’s
rent, security deposits, utility deposits and/ or arrearages so that they may secure permanent
housing or prevent their eviction from permanent housing.
$ 250,000 5,000
Objective 1.2: Provide emergency financial assistance in the form of short- term rent, mortgage
and utility payments to approximately 2,000 persons living with HIV/ AIDS and their families
over the next 5 years using $ 5 million in HOPWA funds.
$ 5,000,000 2,000
Objective 2.1: Provide $ 10,000,000 over the next five years to assist over 110 organizations
across the state with operating costs for homeless shelters. These funds will assist in providing
shelter to over 14,000 homeless single adults and 30,000 members of homeless families each of
the next five years.
$ 10,000,000 220,000
Objective 3.1: Using approximately $ 800,000 of the state’s ESG allocation over the next five
years, subsidize the provision of one or more needed services to approximately 30,000 homeless
individuals and families served by ESG- funded homeless facilities. These needed services will
assist homeless individuals and families in their transition from homelessness to stability.
$ 800,000 30,000
Objective 4.1: Create 200 beds of emergency shelter using approximately $ 1 million from the
North Carolina Housing Finance Agency Supportive Housing Development Program between
2006 and 2010.
$ 1,000,000 200
Objective 4.2: Create a working group under the ICCHP to recommend the use of new funding
sources for emergency shelter construction and rehabilitation.
Objective 5.1: Develop 400 units of supportive housing for homeless persons with disabilities
utilizing $ 4 million in HOME and $ 4 million from the Housing Trust Fund through the NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development Program.
$ 8,000,000 400
High Priority
Homelessness
Strategy 1: Prevent homelessness in North Carolina.
Strategy 2: Provide operating support to homeless providers in North Carolina.
Strategy 3: Provide supportive services to homeless individuals and families to help
them transition to housing stability.
Strategy 4: Increase the supply of decent and sanitary emergency shelter beds for
homeless populations in North Carolina.
Strategy 5: Increase the number of supportive housing units for homeless people.
19
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives ( continued)
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 6.1: Provide rent assistance to 150 households using approximately $ 1 million in
HOPWA funds between 2006 and 2010, and provide 10 years of rent assistance to 680
households in Tax Credit developments with $ 6.25 million in HOME Match.
$ 7,250,000 830
Objective 7.1: Develop 400 units of supportive housing for non- homeless persons with
disabilities using $ 4 million in HOME and $ 4 million from the Housing Trust Fund between
2006 and 2010.
$ 8,000,000 400
Objective 8.1: From 2006- 2010, an estimated $ 2 million of HOPWA funds will be used for
operating expenses for dedicated housing facilities.
$ 2,000,000 350
Objective 9.1: Allocate approximately $ 300,000 in HOPWA funds to link supportive services
with operating expenses in a dedicated housing facility and short- term rent, mortgage and utility
payments for approximately 650 non- homeless persons living with HIV/ AIDS.
$ 300,000 650
Objective 10.1: Finance the development of 4,540 rental units affordable to high- priority
renters between 2006 and 2010.
235,550,000 4,540
Objective 11.1: Finance rehabilitation of 1,830 units for high- priority renter households from
2006- 2010 using approximately $ 73.4 million in state and federal tax credit equity, $ 5 million in
CDBG funds, and $ 843,000 in HOME funds .
79,243,000 1,830
Objective 12.1: Provide urgent repair to 3,500 elderly or disabled households whose homes are
in dire need of immediate attention. These activities will be funded using $ 10 million from the
North Carolina Housing Trust Fund and $ 2.6 million of CDBG funds.
$ 12,600,000 3,500
Objective 13.1: Rehabilitate 1,075 homes for high priority households, utilizing $ 19 million in
HOME funds, $ 16 million in CDBG funds, and $ 600,000 in DukeHELP funds.
$ 35,600,000 1,075
Objective 14.1: Provide a suitable and comparable replacement home for 550 elderly and other
high priority households utilizing approximately $ 32 million in CDBG funds.
$ 32,000,000 550
Objective 15.1: Prevent foreclosure for 475 homeowners with $ 2.5 million in state-appropriated
funds for the Home Protection Pilot Program and $ 280,000 in NCHFA funds.
$ 2,780,000 475
Objective 16.1: Provide approximately 500 high priority households with new water and/ or
wastewater services using approximately $ 21 million in CDBG funds. Allow for an additional
900 households to receive hook- ups to public water and/ or wastewater lines using $ 2.8 million
in CDBG funds and for repair of on- site well and/ or septic systems for 265 households using
$ 1.3 million in CDBG funds from the Division of Community Assistance.
$ 25,100,000 1,665
$ 465,473,000 Total High Priority 273,465
Strategy 13: Preserve the affordable owner- occupied housing stock owned by high
priority owners.
Strategy 14: Replace dilapidated homes occupied by high priority owners.
Strategy 15: Prevent foreclosure for high priority homeowners who have lost their
jobs through no fault of their own.
Strategy 16: Provide infrastructure for high priority owners in need.
Strategy 10: Increase the supply of new rental units affordable to high priority
renters.
Strategy 11: Preserve the rental housing stock affordable to high priority renters.
High Priority Owners
Strategy 12: Eliminate housing threats to life and safety among high priority
homeowners.
Strategy 7: Increase the supply of decent, affordable supportive housing for special
needs populations in North Carolina.
Strategy 8: Provide operating assistance for service providers.
Strategy 9: Orchestrate supportive services and rent assistance.
High Priority Renters
Strategy 6: Increase the ability of special needs populations to access existing rental
units.
Special Needs
20
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives ( continued)
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 17.1: Finance the development of 5,085 new rental units affordable to medium
priority renters.
$ 270,550,000 5,085
Objective 18.1: Finance rehabilitation of 1,945 units for medium priority renter households
using approximately $ 85 million in state and federal tax credit equity, $ 2.1 million in CDBG
funds, and $ 920,000 in HOME funds.
$ 88,020,000 1,945
Objective 19.1: Rehabilitate 500 homes for medium priority homeowners, utilizing $ 8.3
million in HOME funds, $ 7.3 million in CDBG funds, and $ 720,000 in DukeHELP funds.
$ 16,320,000 500
Objective 20.1: Provide a replacement home for 240 medium priority households utilizing
approximately $ 14.6 million in CDBG funds in order to provide safe, decent, and sanitary living
conditions.
$ 14,600,000 240
Objective 21.1: Provide approximately 215 medium priority households with new water and/ or
wastewater services living in areas with no public water or wastewater lines using approximately
$ 8.8 million in CDBG funds. Allow for an additional 400 households to receive hook- ups to
public water and/ or wastewater lines using $ 1.2 million in CDBG funds and for repair of on- site
well and/ or septic systems for 130 households using $ 650,000 in CDBG funds from the Division
of Community Assistance.
$ 10,650,000 745
$ 400,140,000 8,515
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 22.1: Finance the development of 1,865 new rental units affordable to low- priority
renter households.
$ 99,350,000 1,865
Objective 23.1: Finance rehabilitation of 635 units for low- priority renter households using
approximately $ 31.3 million in state and federal tax credit equity, $ 375,000 in CDBG funds, and
$ 200,000 in HOME funds.
$ 31,875,000 635
Objective 24.1: Work with local governments and nonprofits to assist 600 rental households in
purchasing their first home and achieving increased financial literacy with $ 7.75 million in
HOME funds and $ 1 million in CDBG funds.
$ 8,750,000 600
Objective 24.2: NCHFA will assist 370 new homeowners with Rural Opportunity Mortgage
Program first mortgages, using $ 18.4 million in HOME funds. NCHFA will enable 1,210
households to buy homes through its New Homes Loan Pool and its Self Help Loan Pool, using
$ 24.2 million in HOME.
$ 42,600,000 1,580
Objective 24.3: Assist 910 households in purchasing their first home through downpayment
assistance through American Dream Downpayment Initiative and HOME funds, and CDBG
funds.
$ 6,310,000 910
Objective 25.1: Provide related infrastructure for the construction 175 new homes from 2006-
2010 using $ 3.15 million in CDBG funds. $ 3,150,000 175
Medium Priority
Medium Priority Renters
Strategy 17: Increase the supply of new rental units affordable to medium priority
renters.
Strategy 18: Preserve existing rental housing affordable to medium priority renters.
Medium Priority Owners
Strategy 19: Preserve the affordable owner- occupied housing stock owned by
medium priority owners.
Strategy 20: Replace inadequate homes occupied by medium priority owners.
Strategy 21: Provide infrastructure for medium priority owners in need.
Total Medium Priority
Low Priority
Low Priority Renters
Strategy 22: Increase the supply of new rental units affordable to low priority
renters.
Strategy 23: Preserve existing rental housing affordable to low priority renters.
Homebuyers
Strategy 24: Enable renter households to become homeowners.
Strategy 25: Finance infrastructure for the construction of new homes affordable to
low- income homebuyers.
21
Figure S. 2: Housing Strategies and Objectives ( continued)
Figure S. 3: Housing Funding by Priority ( excludes the Mortgage Revenue Bond and Mortgage Credit Certificate
funding sources; these sources are nondiscretionary and must be used for the low- priority activity of
homeownership.)
Housing Funding by Priority
High
43%
Medium
38%
Low
19%
Anticipated
Funding
Anticipated
Households/
Individuals
Objective 26.1: Rehabilitate 170 homes for low priority homeowners, utilizing $ 2.1 million in
HOME funds, $ 1.58 Million in DukeHELP funds, and $ 225,000 in CDBG funds.
$ 3,905,000 170
Objective 27.1: Provide a replacement home for 5 low priority households utilizing
approximately $ 450,000 in CDBG funds.
$ 450,000 5
Objective 28.1: Provide approximately 40 low priority households living in areas with no
public water or wastewater lines with new water and/ or wastewater services, using
approximately $ 1.6 million in CDBG funds. Allow for an additional 70 households to receive
hook- ups to public water and/ or wastewater lines using $ 200,000 in CDBG funds.
$ 1,800,000 110
$ 198,190,000 6,050
$ 1,063,803,000 288,030
Strategy 28: Provide infrastructure for low priority owners in need.
Total Low Priority
Total Activity ( High, Medium, & Low Priority)
Low Priority Owners
Strategy 26: Preserve the affordable owner- occupied housing stock owned by low
priority owners.
Strategy 27: Replace inadequate homes occupied by low priority owners.
22
Figure S. 4: Community Development Strategies and Objectives
Objective 31.3: Build community capacity by providing funds to the Capacity Building category, performing a complete review of
the strengths and weaknesses of this program, and conducting the Community Development Academy.
Objective 30.1: Increase the number of quality jobs available to North Carolinians through business recruitment and targeted
incentives.
Objective 30.2: Convene a task force of small business and entrepreneurship experts to identify best practices in using CDBG
funds to support small business and microenterprise growth in North Carolina.
Strategy 31: Focus programs on alleviation of poverty through sound development principles
Objective 31.1: Utilize smart growth principles in all CDBG projects.
Objective 29.1: Install public water and wastewater lines where feasible in rural residential areas, and provide funds to hook
residents to existing lines where available.
Objective 29.2: Identify rural households disposing of wastewater through straight piping and provide an appropriate wastewater
disposal method.
Strategy 30: Improve the economic prosperity of all North Carolinians through business recruitment and small
business development.
Objective 31.2: Support programs that encourage holistic improvements of neighborhoods through appropriate program guidelines
and allowing multiple activities to address a variety of needs.
Strategy 29: Improve public and environmental health by providing public water and wastewater services where
applicable, and mitigating improper wastewater disposal in more remote areas
Community Development Strategies
23
HOMELESS PERSONS
More than 10,000 people, including
persons in families, are homeless in
North Carolina every night. Many
people are homeless due to
unemployment, underemployment,
disability or chronic illness. The
homeless population also includes ex-offenders
as well as victims of domestic
violence. Homeless individuals and
families often face significant barriers
accessing mainstream housing and
supportive services, such as housing
choice vouchers and health care. The
State has prepared a Ten- Year Plan to
End Homelessness, which sets ambitious
goals to reduce the number of homeless
persons in North Carolina. Homeless
prevention, operating assistance, and
supportive services are activities that are
needed throughout all areas of North
Carolina. In urban areas, the emphasis
for state- funded activities is expected to
be on emergency shelter rehabilitation
and the development of transitional and
permanent supportive housing. In rural,
non- entitlement areas, the emphasis will
be on the construction of new shelters
and the development of transitional and
permanent supportive housing. All of
these activities are addressed in further
detail below.
Activities to address the needs of
homeless persons include:
Homeless Prevention
Operating Costs for
Homeless Providers
Supportive Services
Emergency Shelter
Construction and
Rehabilitation
Supportive Housing
Homeless Prevention
Population & Need
A weakened economy over the last five
years and the resultant growth in
unemployment and underemployment
rates has increased the number of
persons seeking financial assistance to
pay late rent and mortgage payments and
to prevent utility shut- offs and/ or
eviction from their residences. Requests
for this assistance from households at
any income level usually indicates that
the household is at imminent risk of
homelessness and can be a way of
identifying households that can benefit
Objective: Provide up to $ 250,000 in
ESG funds for financial assistance to
approximately 1,250 individuals and
3,750 households over five years to pay
late rent, mortgage payments, first
month’s rent, security deposits, utility
deposits and/ or arrearages so that they
may secure permanent housing or
prevent their eviction from permanent
housing.
Objective: Provide up to $ 5 million in
emergency financial assistance in the
form of short- term rent, mortgage and
utility payments to approximately 2,000
persons living with HIV/ AIDS and their
families over the next 5 years.
24
from comprehensive homelessness
prevention activities, including financial
assistance. Persons seeking such
assistance are not limited to those
between zero and 30 percent of median
family income ( MFI), but are often those
earning between 50 and 80 percent of
MFI who face sudden income loss
because of lay- offs due to business
closings or downsizing and/ or medical
or legal emergencies. Additional persons
often in need of homeless prevention
assistance include ex- offenders recently
released from prison, victims of
domestic violence and sexual assault,
discharged patients in mental and/ or
veteran hospitals and residents of
transitional housing facilities who
require security deposits, first month’s
rent and utility deposits in order to
secure permanent housing.
A major goal of the North Carolina Ten
Year Plan to End Homelessness is to
“ implement aggressive prevention
strategies.” The plan calls for improved
discharge planning from publicly funded
institutions such as prisons and mental
and veteran hospitals as well as targeted
assistance to households with housing
cost to income ratios which put them at
immediate risk of homelessness. In
addition, the Plan calls for increasing
employment rates among people who are
homeless or at risk of homelessness and
developing and implementing a “ no
wrong door” policy that ensures
homeless people needing assistance will
be properly linked to appropriate
resources and services. Admittedly,
many of the Plan’s prevention strategies
will take a period of time to initiate and
in the Plan’s first draft none identify or
call for the establishment of a state
source of funding. Creating a state
source of funding from which homeless
and/ or people at risk of homelessness
may receive assist to secure or retain
permanent housing would have an
immediate impact in preventing
homelessness.
Many individuals and families with low-incomes
are forced to make critical
choices when their finances are not
sufficient to meet basic living needs. The
HIV Cost and Services Utilization Study
( 1996), the most comprehensive study to
date, presents a statistical snapshot of the
economic well being of people living
with HIV/ AIDS. At the time of the
study, 63 percent were unemployed, 46
percent had a household income of less
than $ 10,000, 20 percent had no health
insurance, and 78 percent had no private
health insurance.
Housing and healthcare are the primary
needs for all people living with
disabilities or chronic illness in North
Carolina. However, many of these
people, who earn low incomes, must
make difficult decisions for themselves
and their families. At times they may
have to decide between paying medical
bills - or paying rent, a utility bill, or
move - in costs such as security deposits.
The repercussions of such decisions may
mean fewer meals, no healthcare, and
loss of utilities, overcrowded housing, or
eviction.
How Activity Meets Need
The provision of homeless prevention
assistance in the form of security
deposits, late rent and mortgage
payments and first month’s rent will
allow homeless/ formerly homeless
families and individuals to secure a
permanent residence and those persons
who have experienced a sudden loss of
25
income and are facing eviction to remain
in their permanent place of residence.
Payment of utility deposits or utility
arrearages will allow individuals and
families to remain in safe and habitable
housing.
The HOPWA ( Housing Opportunities
for Persons with AIDS) funded activity
of providing short- term rent, mortgage
and utility payment assistance, prevents
homelessness for persons living with
HIV/ AIDS ( PLWHA) who are already
housed and/ or homeless by providing 21
weeks of emergency financial assistance.
The short- term rent, mortgage and utility
assistance is coupled with Project
Sponsors providing resource
identification and housing information.
This allows consumers and their families
the opportunity to be housed or remain
housed.
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
Existing state and federal resources for
homeless prevention activities in North
Carolina are extremely limited. The
primary funding resources are the
federal Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG)
Program and privately held funds
controlled by state and/ or local charities
and churches.
Federal regulations allow ESG grantees
to use no more than 30 percent of their
total ESG allocation for homeless
prevention activities.
Use of funds for homeless prevention by
ESG grantee organizations has steadily
declined over the last seven years. The
amount of ESG funds used by Balance
of State ESG grantees to fund homeless
prevention activities totaled $ 161,169 in
FY 1998- 99. In FY 2005- 06 only
$ 46,489 will be used by ESG grantees
for homeless prevention activities. In
FY 2004, less than 9 percent of the
State’s ESG entitlement funds were used
for homeless prevention and that was in
only one of the State’s five entitlement
areas. The remaining four entitlement
areas chose not to use their ESG funds
for homeless prevention. The decline in
use of ESG funds for homeless
prevention by ESG grantees can be
traced to the increasing need to use ESG
funds for shelter operating costs and, to a
lesser extent, client services.
Many ESG grantees rely on charities and
churches in their service areas to fully
meet their clients’ need for homeless
prevention funds or to supplement the
grantee’s own limited homeless
prevention program. However, since the
overall decline in our State’s economy of
recent years has resulted in a reciprocal
drop in individual and business
donations. Many churches and charities
have also been forced to substantially
reduce the amount of money they can
provide for these purposes.
HOPWA Project Sponsors that provide
emergency financial assistance are
limited by a specific number of weeks
for assistance, 21 weeks out of a 52-
week period. Although, emergency
financial allocations have increased for
project sponsors from 2002- 2004, there
was a 5 percent decrease in funds for FY
2005- 2006. Based on the 2004 NC
HIV/ AIDS Housing Plan, the need for
more permanent/ permanent supportive
housing was evident from consumers.
Therefore, the allocation for FY 2005-
2006 is $ 1,140,000.00 to allow
additional funding added to tenant- based
26
rental assistance and operating expenses
for a dedicated housing facility.
Summary of Existing Programs
Currently, the best available sources of
funding to assist an individual or family
needing financial assistance with late
rent or mortgage payments, security
deposits and first- month’s rent and/ or
utility deposits and/ or arrearages remain
the ESG program, whether the State’s
balance- of- state program or the ESG
programs of the State’s five ESG
entitlement areas, and funds controlled
by churches and local charities. The City
of Charlotte is unique among the state’s
cities in that it provides as much as
$ 200,000 of city funds per year for rental
assistance through a local nonprofit
organization.
The state also offers the Home
Protection Pilot Program, a program
designed to help homeowners who lose
their income through no fault of their
own to retain their homes; although this
is a homelessness prevention activity, it
is addressed as Foreclosure Prevention
Activity ( page 53) under the section on
High Priority Homeowners.
County departments of social services
are required to use a portion of their
Work First Block Grant allocations for
emergency assistance for those families
determined eligible for Work First
assistance. But each local county
department of social services determines
the amount of its allocation that will be
used for emergency assistance, the types
of emergencies for which it will use the
funds and the maximum amount of
funding which can be received by each
eligible family. These emergency
assistance funds are not available to
individuals since only persons with
dependent children may qualify for
Work First.
Currently, the state HOPWA program
covers 92 of the 100 counties in NC with
emergency financial assistance in the
form of short- term rent, mortgage and
utility payment. Eleven HOPWA
Project Sponsors are funded across the
state to provide this service.
The U. S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Health Resources and
Services Administration ( HRSA) also
provides funding dedicated to serving
people living with HIV/ AIDS through
the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS
Resources Emergency ( CARE) Act
program. Nearly $ 600,000 in Ryan
White CARE Act Title II and Title IV
funding was dedicated to housing
assistance for the fiscal year 2003. Both
the Ryan White Program and HOPWA
can be used to fund housing and related
support services, although the eligible
activities differ between programs.
Expected Units and Funding
Assuming that ESG grantees continue
their pattern of use of ESG funding, a
total of only $ 50,000 of the state’s
annual ESG allocation will be used for
homeless prevention activities by ESG
grantees each of the next five years. ESG
entitlement funding can change from
year to year and, although it is expected
that there will be some cities and/ or
counties in North Carolina receiving
ESG entitlement funding, it is uncertain
how much this would be and for what
purposes it will be used.
It is impossible to determine the amount
of funds that will be available through
27
charities and churches for homeless
prevention activities over the next five
years. Much will be determined by the
rate of charitable and church
contributions by individuals and
businesses over the next five years.
It is estimated that 250 individuals and
750 households per year will seek funds
for late rent and mortgage payments,
security and utility deposits and utility
arrearages from the 15- 20 State ESG
program grantees that chose to use a
portion of their ESG allocation for this
purpose.
Operating Costs for Homeless
Providers
Population & Need
In FY 2005- 06 the State’s balance- of-state
Emergency Shelter Grants ( ESG)
Program will fund 144 facilities
providing shelter to homeless people in
North Carolina. These facilities are
operated by 110 nonprofit organizations
and three units of local government in 53
counties of the state. They include 24
hour, day- only and night- only
emergency shelters, transitional shelters,
domestic violence shelters, and interfaith
hospitality networks. This is the largest
number of facilities ever funded with the
State’s ESG allocation.
The needs of these facilities are many,
but over the last five years their need for
simple operating costs has escalated.
Many have seen donations from their
local communities and from such
funding mainstays as United Way fall in
the wake of 9/ 11. With local
governments experiencing shortages in
revenue, many facilities have seen their
local government contributions decline.
New funding methodologies and
unfunded mandates adopted by state
and/ or federal funding have also caused
many grantees to lose funds they have
depended on for years. The actual year
to year increases in such items as
utilities, supplies, waste management,
rent, food and equipment combined with
an increased number of people seeking
their services has caused many shelters
to experience serious budget deficits.
Finally, the cost of maintaining and
repairing shelters often housed in
buildings needing major rehabilitation
has further burdened shelter budgets.
In FY 98- 99, 80 percent ( 1,850,439) of
the State’s ESG allocation available to
grantees was used by program grantees
for operating costs. In FY 2005- 06,
program grantees will use 92 percent
( 2,178,660) of the State’s ESG
allocation available to them for
operating costs. This increased use of
ESG funding for operations costs has
resulted in less ESG funding going for
client services and homeless prevention
activities.
How Activity Meets Need
Homeless facilities must have the
financial resources to pay the normal,
operating costs of sheltering and feeding
their clients. This, after all, is their
primary function – to assure that a
Objective: Provide $ 10,000,000 over
the next five years to assist over 110
organizations across the state with
operating costs for homeless shelters.
These funds will assist in providing
shelter to over 14,000 homeless single
adults and 30,000 members of
homeless families each of the next five
years.
28
person or family without a permanent
residence receives simple shelter from
the elements and the basic necessities of
life. Client services are important, but
mean little if the person does not have a
safe, decent place to lay his/ her head or
receive a simple meal.
The HOPWA Program provides
operating assistance for adult day
care/ day health programs and family
care homes with the financial resources
to pay the operating costs for the day- to-day
program functions serving persons
living with HIV/ AIDS. The availability
of funding these facilities provides
clients who need this level of assistance
with permanent supportive housing
linked to a variety of support services.
Clients receive nutritional meals,
transportation to from the doctor, a safe
living environment, job training skills
and/ or access to a case manager.
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
In addition to the federally funded ESG
program, many shelters use local
government funds, donations from
churches, individuals and businesses,
fund- raising events and foundation
funding to pay their operating costs. At
times, shelters have started businesses
such as thrift stores to subsidize their
operations. In the last five years, many
shelters have begun charging their
clients nominal boarding fees or
program fees and using fees collected to
support their increasing operating and
service program costs.
There are no State monies specifically
designated to assist homeless facilities
with operating costs. This is in direct
contrast. Some states that provide State
funds to assist homeless shelters. If a
shelter serves a particular sub- population
of the homeless such as the mentally ill
or disabled or those with substance
abuse disorders, and establishes a
contract with the Local Management
Entity, it may be able to secure some
funding through the Division of Mental
Health, Developmental Disabilities and
Substance Abuse Disorders of the
Department of Health and Human
Services. If a shelter serves survivors of
domestic violence and sexual assault
they may qualify for funding from a
variety of programs administered by the
Governor’s Crime Commission, the
Council for Women of the NC
Department of Administration, or their
local department of social services.
Youth shelters can apply for funding
through the Department of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
A state or local entitlement may allow
use of its federally funded Community
Development Block Grant ( CDBG)
funds to pay the cost of operating and
maintaining a facility which houses a
public service. However, no more than
15 percent of the CDBG funds received
by a jurisdiction can go towards public
services. In North Carolina, some local
entitlements have been willing to
provide CDBG funds to homeless
shelters in their areas, but balance- of-state
CDBG funds have not been used to
fund operating costs of homeless shelters
despite the work of homeless advocates
to secure State CDBG funding for this
purpose. With CDBG funds targeted for
elimination or dramatic cuts by the
federal government, it is doubtful CDBG
will ever be a viable or available source
of funding in the future for homeless
shelters in North Carolina.
29
Adult day care/ day health programs and
family care homes that serve persons
living with HIV/ AIDS that need this
level of care must be licensed. There is
a need for facilities to receive and/ or
retain licensure for new and existing
adult day care/ day health programs and
family care homes. Under state statutes,
facilities must work with the Adult
Home Specialist within the Division of
Social Services and the Construction
Section of the Division of Facility
Services to obtain licensure.
In addition, there are not enough
HOPWA funds to provide assistance to
all interested facilities. There is no
required state match. Based on the
recent competitive HOPWA request for
application process, there was $ 450,000
available to dedicated housing facilities;
however, grants were received totaling
over $ 960,000. Therefore, additional
funding is needed to support dedicated
housing facilities that can serve persons
living with HIV/ AIDS.
Summary of Existing Programs
Currently the State of North Carolina
offers no programs that finance
operating costs of emergency shelters.
Homeless service providers depend
heavily on the federally funded ESG
program, local government
contributions, donations from
individuals, businesses and churches,
fundraising events and organization-owned
businesses to pay their operating
costs.
Expected Units and Funding
Over the next five years, absent any
changes in the manner in which ESG
funding is distributed, it is expected that
the bulk of the State’s balance- of- state
ESG funding will be used by grantees to
pay the operating costs of their facilities.
Over a period of five years, ESG funds
used to pay shelter- operating costs could
total as much as $ 10,000,000. This total
equals approximately between 90 and 92
percent of the total allocation of ESG
funds to the state program. Sadly, these
funds are not expected to cover the total
operating costs of State ESG grantees.
They will still need to rely on private
donations, fund raising events, church
donations, and foundation funding, local
government support and/ or client rent
and program fees to subsidize their
operating costs.
It is estimated that an average of 30,000
single homeless individuals and 14,000
members of homeless families will be
served by an average of 140 ESG funded
facilities over each of the next five years.
S
upportive Services
Population and Need
Homeless individuals and families can
have numerous problems and issues that
reduce their ability to maintain housing.
Indeed, it is rare that a homeless person
or family does not need a variety of
services to stabilize their lives. It is
equally rare to find a homeless shelter
that does not provide or at the very least
refer its clients to service providers. In a
majority of cases, homeless shelters
require their clients to pursue service
opportunities as a condition of their
Objective: Use approximately $ 800,000 of the
state’s ESG allocation over the next five years
to subsidize the delivery of one or more
needed services to approximately 30,000
homeless people sheltered by ESG grantees.
These services will assist in their transition
from homelessness to stability.
30
shelter residence and federal and/ or state
programs require grantees to provide the
most essential of services to their clients
in order to receive funding. This has
become a common practice because
organizations working with the homeless
have recognized that a homeless person
or family will require a variety of
services to effectively address the cause
of their homelessness and realistically
prevent their homelessness from re-occurring.
In FY 1998- 99, 13 percent ($ 295,942) of
the State’s ESG allocation available to
grantees was used by program grantees
for client services. In FY 2004- 2005,
program grantees are using 8 percent
($ 166,330) of the State’s ESG allocation
available to them to pay the cost of
providing program services to their
clients. The need to use ESG funding for
operating costs coupled with their
success in securing funding from other
government programs for client services
has caused this drop in the use of ESG
funds for client services.
How the Activity Meets the Need
Sheltering the homeless in emergency
shelters indefinitely is not the solution to
homelessness. Success in moving people
from homelessness to stability more
often depends on the quality and
availability of needed services that can
address the root causes of why a person
becomes homeless and the availability of
affordable permanent housing in their
areas. Unemployment, for example, may
cause a person to run out of funds to pay
their rent or mortgage and, consequently,
cause the person to be evicted from
his/ her home. However, what caused the
unemployment? Was it poor work
habits, a company layoff, alcohol and/ or
substance abuse, a discovered criminal
record, a serious and persistent illness or
was it a combination of events, bad
decisions and/ or poor planning? Even
when it may appear that the
homelessness is caused by a single
factor, such as unemployment, it is more
often the case that this single factor is
actually a manifestation of a number of
previous events or conditions in the
person’s life.
The needs of a homeless person or
family may be as basic as shelter, food,
clothing or transportation or they may
require more skilled services such as
case management, employment training
or re- training, GED attainment,
professional counseling for addiction,
mental illness and personal and/ or
family issues, basic to complex medical
and/ or dental treatment, parenting skills,
budget counseling, nutritional
counseling and day care. Permanent
housing placement with the provision of
supportive services linked to be
undeniably more effective and longer
lasting than providing a homeless person
with shelter and other basic necessities
of life only or placing them in permanent
housing without supportive services.
This is especially true with persons or
families who have been homeless for
long periods of time or that have a
multitude of problems which are
intertwined to such an extent that they
seem overwhelming to the client.
Supportive services tied to a dedicated
housing facility or permanent
independent housing ( STRMU) provides
a more consistent and fluid continuum of
services for clients. Based on the 2004
HIV/ AIDS Housing Plan, coordination
of housing and support service delivery
will ensure that persons receiving
HOPWA funds will have access to a
31
case manager and a housing care plan
for the future.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
In addition to the federally funded ESG
program, many shelters use local
government funds, church, individual,
foundation and business donations, fund-raising
and other federal and/ or state
government program funds to provide
needed services to their clients. In ESG,
however, a grantee may not spend more
than 30 percent of its total allocation for
Services costs and, as mentioned earlier,
the amount of ESG funds used by ESG
balance- of- state grantees has steadily
declined over the last seven years due to
their need to use ESG funds for
operating costs.
Homeless shelter and service providers
that serve a specific subpopulation of the
homeless often pursue other state or
federal programs designed especially for
this subpopulation. The federally funded
PATH Program, administered by the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Administration ( SAMSHA), may be a
source of client services for homeless
shelter and service providers who have
clients with serious mental illness
including those with a co- occurring
substance use disorder. In North
Carolina, however, the PATH allocation
totals less than one million dollars per
year and the ten PATH providers are
able to serve under 600 clients per year.
The Veteran Administration’s Homeless
Providers Grant and Per Diem Program
is a federal program that is accessed by
some shelters serving a significant
number of homeless veterans. HUD’s
Supportive Housing Program can offer
funding not only for transitional housing,
but for supportive services such as child
care, employment assistance, outpatient
health services, case management,
referral to permanent housing and
nutritional counseling. Shelters serving
persons diagnosed with HIV/ AIDS may
receive HOPWA funding which can
provide some supportive services for
their clients. State- funded programs
administered by the NC Council for
Women or the Governor’s Crime
Commission may be accessed by
domestic violence and sexual assault
shelters. All of these federally and state
funded programs provide services
funding for the State’s homeless shelter
and service providers. However, funding
from these programs is not guaranteed
past the initial funding period. All are
competitive programs and must,
therefore, be applied for again by
homeless service providers.
Homeless shelter and service providers
who are able to meet credentialing
standards as a Medicaid provider may
receive payments under the Medicaid
program for eligible clients. However,
usually these funds go to providers
delivering specialized services to a
particular service population. Becoming
a Medicaid provider is usually not
practical or feasible for a homeless
service provider assisting the general
homeless population. Homeless service
providers most commonly provide
assistance to clients applying for benefits
from government programs.
The State’s Ten- Year Plan to End
Homelessness acknowledges that service
funding gaps do and will continue to
occur for persons and families who are
not Medicaid eligible, for services that
are not Medicaid eligible, and to cover
costs while individuals are in the
32
application process. The Plan also notes
that new resources in the private and
public sector should be identified to
meet these gaps.
Summary of Existing Programs
Homeless service providers in North
Carolina fund services to their clients
through a variety of sources including
federal and state funded programs, local
charities, private foundations, churches,
individual and business donations,
fundraising activities and client program
fees. Many of the federal and state
funded programs which fund client
services are competitive and/ or have
special conditions limiting funding to a
specific service, population or period of
time. Funding from non- government
sources is not assured either in amount
or from year- to- year.
Expected Units and Funding
It is the goal of the Office of Economic
Development to subsidize the provision
by funded shelters of one or more
needed services to approximately 30,000
homeless people. These services will
assist homeless people and families in
their transition from homelessness to
stability. It is estimated that
approximately $ 800,000 of the State’s
ESG allocation over the next five years
will be used for this purpose.
Emergency Shelter Construction
and Rehabilitation
Population & Need
There are currently at least 182
emergency shelters in the State of North
Carolina, including shelters for survivors
of domestic violence. These shelters
provide approximately 5,000 beds of
temporary housing for homeless
individuals and homeless families. The
January 2005 statewide point- in- time
count totaled 11,165 homeless people,
including 7,642 individuals and 3,523
people in families. Emergency shelters
range from four beds to as many as 232
beds. In 19 North Carolina counties,
however, there are no emergency
shelters.
Of the 182 emergency shelters in the
State, it is estimated that one or more
shelters in urban areas need substantial
renovation. For example, many shelters
are located in buildings that are leased or
formerly owned by cities/ counties ( e. g.,
Fifth Street Ministries in Statesville,
Helen Wright Center in Raleigh, Hope
Station in Wilson). Unfortunately, many
of these structures had deficiencies
before they were transferred to homeless
providers. Over the years, these
deficiencies have become more
pronounced leaving many homeless
people living in shelters that are unsafe
and with inadequate plumbing and
sanitary facilities. Further, many of
these buildings are not handicapped
Objective: Create 200 beds of
emergency shelter using approximately
$ 1 million from the North Carolina
Housing Finance Agency Supportive
Housing Development Program
between 2006 and 2010.
33
accessible. When nonprofit
organizations took over these facilities to
provide emergency shelter, they usually
did not have sufficient replacement
reserves to carry out significant building
renovations.
How Activity Meets Need
The construction of new emergency
shelters in underserved, rural
communities ( non- entitlement
communities) will allow families and
individuals to have safe temporary
housing without needing to leave their
community. The provision of
emergency shelter facilities throughout
the State will relieve pressure off
existing emergency shelters in the
metropolitan areas of the State. In rural
areas, many homeless families are living
in precarious doubled up situations due
to the lack of a shelter.
The rehabilitation of substandard
emergency shelters is a high priority
given the fact that some homeless
individuals and residents are living in
substandard shelters. Some shelters
contain lead, asbestos, as well as mold,
all of which are serious health hazards.
Many emergency shelters are not in
compliance with current building codes
and have high operating costs due to the
lack of energy efficiency. By providing
resources to renovate existing shelters,
the State will be creating safe and decent
shelters for the homeless. Energy
efficiency improvements will reduce
monthly operating costs for the shelter
owner.
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
There is a desperate need for
construction of new and renovation or
repair for existing emergency shelters.
However, a dire lack of funds exists to
address these needs. Existing state and
federal resources for the construction of
emergency shelters is extremely limited
in North Carolina. The primary funding
sources are:
· Community Development Block
Grant ( Entitlement and Small Cities
programs)
· NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program
· Emergency Shelter Grant Program
Under CDBG regulations, communities
may construct or rehabilitate public
facilities, which include emergency
shelters. A local government or a
nonprofit entity must own the shelter.
There are 25 CDBG entitlement areas7 in
North Carolina, including Raleigh,
Durham, Charlotte, and Asheville. Many
entitlement communities have leveraged
their CDBG and/ or ESG funds with state
resources to construct new emergency
shelters. The City of Wilmington, for
example, provided $ 300,000 in CDBG
funds to build the new Good Shepherd
Ministries emergency shelter ( St. James
Annex). The North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency provided an additional
$ 400,000 for the construction of this
emergency shelter. CDBG funds are
also distributed to the State of North
Carolina to address rural community
7 A CDBG entitlement area is a municipality or
county that receives CDBG funds directly from
the United States Department of Housing and
Urban Development, and does not participate in
the statewide Small Cities program.
34
development needs with housing needs.
They are administered by the Division of
Community Assistance with the North
Carolina State Department of Commerce
( Small Cities CDBG program).
However, the Small Cities program does
not set- aside funding for emergency
shelter construction or rehabilitation.
Furthermore, a local government must
be the conduit for CDBG funds to be
spent at the local level, and there has not
been a demand from local governments
for construction or rehabilitation of a
homeless shelter using CDBG funds in
the past.
The HUD Emergency Shelter Grant
Program allows for the use of funds for
construction and renovation, but in
North Carolina ESG funds are not used
for this purpose. This decision was made
due to the high cost of renovation and
construction, the low level of ESG
funding available annually and the need
of funded homeless facilities to use the
ESG funding for operating costs,
provision of essential services and
homeless prevention activities. Two or
more construction or renovation projects
could easily deplete North Carolina’s
annual ESG allocation.
The NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program is another
significant resource. SHDP is funded
primarily by the State Housing Trust
Fund ( general appropriations only) but
even this resource creates challenges
since it is provided as a loan and not a
grant. Many homeless providers simply
do not have enough operating income to
cover debt service, let alone their month-to-
month expenses of running a shelter.
Efforts to open new shelters often
encounter resistance from the local
populace, termed NIMBY ( Not In My
Back Yard). The North Carolina
Housing Coalition is currently
investigating the preponderance of
NIMBY fights across the state to
determine ways to best approach these
political standoffs and still ensure that
safe, decent, and sanitary housing for our
state’s poorest residents is achieved.
Summary of Existing Programs
The Supportive Housing Development
Program at the North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency has provided funding
for the construction and rehabilitation of
emergency shelters since 1994. Recent
shelter construction projects have
included the Urban Ministries of
Durham Community Shelter ( shelter
renovation and expansion) as well as the
Good Shepherd Ministries St. James
Annex in Wilmington. In the past,
NCHFA has used energy efficiency
funds to carry out shelter rehabilitation
efforts. NCHFA has not provided any
funding for emergency shelter
rehabilitation for several years.
However, it is in the process of revising
the guidelines for this program.
Construction and rehabilitation of public
facilities ( including homeless shelters) is
permitted under CDBG regulations, and
is an eligible activity in DCA’s
Concentrated Needs or Revitalization
Strategies categories. However, the
state’s Small Cities CDBG program has
not allocated funds for construction or
rehabilitation of a homeless shelter, and
such a request has never been made. By
2007, DCA will explore the options of
increasing promotion of the possibility
of construction or rehabilitation of
homeless shelters in its Concentrated
Needs and Revitalization Strategies
35
categories, and also amending its
Housing Development category
guidelines to allow for construction or
rehabilitation of homeless shelters.
Expected Units and Funding
From 2006- 2010, the North Carolina
Housing Finance Agency will invest
approximately $ 1 million under its
Supportive Housing Development
Program ( Housing Trust Fund) for
provision of 200 additional emergency
shelter beds, either through construction
or rehabilitation, in urban and rural
areas.
Supportive Housing
Population & Need
North Carolina’s Ten- Year Plan to End
Homelessness calls for the development
of 1,250 units of permanent supportive
housing for homeless persons with
disabilities, with approximately 50
percent of these units created solely
through rental assistance. According to
figures contained in the 2005 Continuum
of Care Plans around the State, there is a
need for more than 4,000 units of
permanent supportive housing.
Although the Continuums of Care do not
cover all 100 counties in the State, these
estimates are the best available figures
and are based, in part, on annual point in
time counts of the homeless population.
The need for permanent supportive
housing can include several different
models including rental assistance that is
linked to supportive services, such as
HUD’s Shelter Plus Care Program, as
well as independent apartments that are
targeted for homeless individuals or
families with disabilities. While there
are many homeless individuals and
families that do not require permanent
housing with supportive services, it is
estimated that between 10 to 15 percent
of the homeless populations are
chronically homeless due to disabilities
such as mental illness, substance abuse,
and developmental disabilities. Many of
these individuals may need access to
ongoing supportive services.
There are almost 4,000 beds of
transitional housing serving the
homeless in North Carolina, including
more than 2,000 beds for homeless
individuals and more than 1,800 beds for
homeless families.
How Activity Meets Need
The provision of permanent housing
with supportive services provides safe,
affordable housing for homeless
populations that need community
supports. Supportive services help the
client maintain their housing. The
provision of stable affordable housing
will allow many homeless individuals
and families with disabilities to live
independently. Providing financing for
the construction of housing so that
homeless persons can leave the streets
and shelters and move into a more
permanent living arrangement is an
essential tool in the plan to end chronic
homelessness.
Objective: Develop 400 units of
supportive housing for homeless persons
with disabilities utilizing $ 4 million in
HOME and $ 4 million from the Housing
Trust Fund through the NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development
Program.
36
Transitional supportive housing is
important because it allows homeless
individuals and families to gain
resources that will allow them to enter
the permanent housing market ( with or
without supportive services).
Obstacles to Meeting Need With This
Activity
The development of supportive housing
for homeless populations is hindered by
several components, including: 1) high
development costs; 2) lack of
multifamily zoning districts and
NIMBYism, 3) complexity of mixing
several funding resources; 4) limited
number of grants; 5) lack of nonprofit
capacity; and 6) significant
predevelopment expenses for new
construction or acquisition and rehab.
Unfortunately, many North Carolina
communities have not applied for
available Continuum of Care funds,
which has also prevented the
development of supportive housing for
the homeless.
Supportive housing can be funded by a
variety of funding sources, including
HOME funds, CDBG funds, NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development
Program funds, Continuum of Care SHP
funds, Veterans Affairs Capital Grants,
as well as HOPWA funds. Many of
these resources are extremely
competitive. Further, many HOME
participating jurisdictions use a large
majority of their HOME funding for first
time homeownership programs and not
rental housing and/ or supportive
housing.
Transitional housing is often provided
within congregate settings where
residents share bedrooms. Often, the
housing is serving homeless individuals
with disabilities. Despite possible
violations of the Fair Housing Act, many
communities across North Carolina are
limiting the development of group
homes by using one or more of the
following methods: 1) restrictive single
family definitions which limit the
number of unrelated persons that can
live in single family homes; 2) group
home spacing requirements; 3) public
hearing requirements; and 4) imposition
of institutional/ commercial building
code regulations. Although state law
prevents local jurisdictions from
excluding family care homes, state law
does permit local communities to use ½
mile spacing ( NCGS 168- 2). The half-mile
spacing requirement has been
identified as an impediment to fair
housing in the State of North Carolina
2001 Analysis of Impediments of Fair
Housing Choice. The continued use of
group home spacing requirements will
make it difficult for the State to comply
with the U. S. Supreme Court decision in
Olmstead vs. L. C. In addition to local
restrictions, there are repeated instances
of NIMBYism ( Not in My Backyard).
Summary of Existing Programs
The principal state programs that
provide funding for supportive housing
for the homeless include NCHFA’s
Supportive Housing Development
Program ( SHDP) and LIHTC targeted
units. The SHDP at the North Carolina
Housing Finance Agency has provided
funding for the development of
supportive housing since 1994. SHDP
has funded transitional as well as
permanent housing development for
homeless subpopulations including
domestic violence survivors and persons
with mental illness.
37
The State of North Carolina’s Qualified
Allocation Plan requires LIHTC owners
to target 10 percent of the units in their
developments to persons with disabilities
or homeless populations. To support this
commitment, developers partner with
local lead agencies who agree to be the
conduit for tenant referrals and to
provide, coordinate or act as a referral
source for the array of community
services, both Medicaid and non-
Medicaid funded services, available to
assist persons with disabilities to live
successfully in the community.
Furthermore, developers make 5% of the
total number of units in their
development fully accessible ( in addition
to the number of units required by
existing law and building codes). These
units include a higher than minimum
standard of accessible design features,
including curb less showers and 5’ by 5’
clear floor space around toilets in each
class ( bedroom size) of units.
The Division of Community Assistance
allocates Community Development
Block Grant ( CDBG) for new
construction by funding the required
infrastructure for new development.
There are a number of different program
requirements based upon the type of
housing to be constructed. Though DCA
does not offer a category specifically
targeted towards supportive housing,
projects in the Housing Development
category in the past have been utilized
for supportive housing projects.
Housing Development projects can be
utilized for multi- family projects aimed
at residents who, for one reason or
another, will continue to rent. DCA will
provide for installation of public
infrastructure ( water and sewer lines are
automatically eligible for funding;
streets, sidewalks and drainage may be
funded on a case by case basis), the
removal of hazardous material,
acquisition of vacant land ( by an eligible
nonprofit) or vacant historic buildings
( by an eligible nonprofit or for- profit
developer), and certain rehabilitation
activities ( on a case- by- case basis).
In addition, DCA works collaboratively
with the North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency's ( NCHFA) Tax
Credit/ Rental Production Program ( RPP)
for multi- unit rental housing by
providing infrastructure related funds to
some of these development projects.
Expected Units and Funding
The primary State program to provide
supportive housing for homeless persons
with disabilities is the NCHFA
Supportive Housing Development
Program ( SHDP). From 2006- 2010, it is
expected that the NCHFA SHDP will
fund approximately 400 units of
supportive housing for a total of $ 8
million ( comprised of $ 4 million from
the Housing Trust Fund and $ 4 million
HOME). Many of these units will be
developed using a combination of HUD
Continuum of Care funding as well as
NCHFA SHDP. NCHFA has begun to
use HOME funds as a cash match for
HUD Continuum of Care development
projects.
DCA aims to provide at least $ 2 million
for new housing construction through its
Housing Development program. These
funds may be used for the construction
of supportive housing, though that
decision is left up to the local
government and/ or local nonprofits and
developers. There is no set- aside in the
Housing Development program for
38
supportive housing, so estimating the
number of these housing units that will
be constructed as supportive housing
units is dubious at best. DCA’s goal for
creation of new rental housing units is
detailed in the high, medium, and low
priority renter sections of the strategic
plan.
39
PERSONS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
Non- homeless populations with special
needs continue to be a high priority for
the State of North Carolina because they
are often extremely low- income and
require community services and/ or
modifications to their homes in order to
live as independently as possible.
Populations addressed under this priority
include persons with mental illness,
HIV/ AIDS, developmental disabilities,
physical disabilities, and substance
abuse disorders. In addition, this priority
addresses the needs of the elderly and
frail elderly. While disabilities do not
necessarily prevent an individual from
securing employment, severe disabilities
can prevent or restrict employment
opportunities. As a result, many non-homeless
persons with disabilities are
dependent on Supplemental Security
Income ( SSI) or Social Security
Disability Insurance ( SSDI). As of June
2005, SSI provides $ 564 a month for an
individual and $ 869 for a couple. In
December 2004, there were 195,819 SSI
recipients in North Carolina, including
26,560 elderly and 169,259 disabled
persons. Many non- elderly persons with
disabilities are living in adult care homes
due to the lack of accessible and
affordable supportive housing in their
community. Elderly and frail elderly
households, on the other hand, may have
to leave their home due to the inability to
pay for home modifications as well as
inability to access in- home care services.
As the State of North Carolina continues
to implement mental health system
reform, which includes the downsizing
and closing of state institutions for
persons with disabilities, the need for
community- based supportive housing
will increase.
Unfortunately, due to limitations in the
collecting of data, many households that
by definition are special needs are not
counted as special needs by the partners
in their evaluations of their programs.
This is particularly true when elderly
households receive benefit. For
example, anecdotal evidence suggests
that the majority of households assisted
by the Scattered Site Housing program
of the Division of Community
Assistance are elderly homeowners.
However, since there are no provisions
in place at this time to collect data
pertaining to a householder’s age,
quantifying the percentage of households
to be assisted that are special needs is
difficult. DCA is looking to revise its
data collection methods so that an
accounting of special needs households
assisted, primarily with housing
rehabilitation, can be performed.
Activities to address the needs of
non- homeless persons with special
needs include:
Rent Assistance
Supportive Housing
Operating Assistance
Supportive Services
40
Rent Assistance
Population and Need
While supportive housing development
( new construction or acquisition and
rehabilitation) is one option to meet the
needs of non- homeless populations with
special needs, another activity that is
equally important is rental assistance. If
consumers are provided rental assistance
with supportive services, they are
empowered to find a home anywhere in
their community without losing
supportive services.
Summary of Existing Programs
Currently, the state HOPWA Program
has six HOPWA Project Sponsors that
provide a total of 110 tenant- based rental
assistance vouchers. These sponsors are
within the 92 counties served by the
state program.
There are a number of Shelter Plus Care
vouchers dedicated to persons living
with HIV/ AIDS ( PLWHA) throughout
the state. Also, Durham County has
permanent facility based programs with
a total of 15 units dedicated to PLWHA
and their families.
The NCHFA provides 10- years of rent
assistance to households referred by the
Department of Health and Human
Services who live in developments
funded with tax credits. A valuable
feature of this program is the 10- year
period which each household may
receive the assistance; this provides
stability and long- term affordability to
households who could otherwise not
afford rent.
How Activity Meets Need
Rental assistance is critical for low-income
non- homeless persons with
disabilities or the elderly. Without it
their incomes are often simply too low to
cover housing costs.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
Although non- homeless persons with
special needs may apply for Section 8
Rental Assistance Vouchers from their
local housing authorities, the supply of
Vouchers is far too small to assist every
eligible household. Long waiting lists
and the absence of preferences for this
population at many housing authorities
hinders access to Section 8 vouchers. In
addition, many persons with
disabilities may not meet screening
criteria because of poor credit, lack of
rental history or because of a criminal
record.
Expected Units ( Number of Households)
and Funding
Between 2006 and 2010, it is expected
that the HOPWA program will provide
tenant- based rental assistance to 150
households in North Carolina using $ 1
million in HOPWA funds.
NCHFA expects to provide $ 6.25
million in HOME Match funding for rent
assistance to 680 formerly- homeless or
disabled households in tax credit
Objective: Provide rent assistance to
150 households using approximately
$ 1 million in HOPWA funds between
2006 and 2010, and provide 10 years
of rent assistance to 680 households
in Tax Credit developments with
$ 6.25 million in HOME Match.
41
developments. This funding will be
allocated to the program between 2006
and 2010, and each household will
receive rent assistance for ten years.
Supportive Housing
Population and Need
Affordable supportive housing is a high
priority need for non- homeless persons
with disabilities or the elderly at or
below 30 percent of median income in
urban areas and between zero and 50
percent in rural areas. It is a high
priority need because this population
experiences the most severe housing cost
burden and has the most difficulty
finding and maintaining affordable and
accessible housing without community
supports. The need for supportive
housing is driven by several factors:
1) lack of affordable community- based
housing for persons with disabilities
who rely on SSI or SSDI for income;
2) increase in number of people with
severe and persistent mental illness
who need community based housing
due to the downsizing of the state
institutions ( mental health reform)
and the Olmstead decision;
3) large number of ex- offenders, many
of whom have substance abuse
problems and/ or HIV/ AIDS;
4) large number of persons with
HIV/ AIDS who live below poverty
and whose health is compromised by
the lack of stable, affordable
housing;
5) increasing emphasis on
independence and empowerment for
consumers with disabilities;
6) increasing need for housing that
serves persons with dual diagnosis,
such as HIV/ AIDS and substance
abuse;
7) more than 10,000 developmentally
disabled adults who are now living
with aging parents and caregivers
who are no longer able to provide
adequate care;
8) more than 4,000 non- elderly adults,
many of whom have severe mobility
impairments, who now live in adult
care homes, but could live more
independently; and
9) increasing number of elderly and
frail elderly who have mobility
impairments and who need home
modifications as well as in- home
services.
How Activity Meets Need
The development of affordable and
accessible supportive housing, both
transitional and permanent, enables non-homeless
populations to achieve
independence and to pay for housing and
other daily activities of life. Supportive
housing can include a range of models
and serve a variety of populations.
Supportive housing can be developed as
stand alone units or as units within a
larger development, or as single family
homes, duplexes, or multifamily
structures.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
Supportive housing development,
whether new construction or acquisition
Objective: Develop 400 units of
supportive housing for non- homeless
persons with disabilities using $ 4
million in HOME and $ 4 million from
the Housing Trust Fund between 2006
and 2010.
42
and rehabilitation, is typically a complex
undertaking that faces several challenges
such as:
1) need for multiple funding sources,
with different rules and match
requirements;
2) predevelopment costs that may not
be covered by funding sources;
3) lack of housing development
experience on the part of nonprofit
organizations;
4) the absence of nonprofit
organizations in some areas of the
state, such as Eastern North
Carolina;
5) discriminatory treatment of
supportive housing ( including
transitional housing) by local
jurisdictions, as well as Nimby- ism;
6) lack of legal resources on the part of
nonprofit organizations to challenge
discriminatory practices;
7) high development costs, including
impact fees;
8) lack of state enabling legislation for
inclusionary zoning;
9) state law which enables local
governments to impose spacing
requirements for group homes;
10) outdated zoning definitions that treat
supportive housing as an institutional
use, thereby triggering inappropriate
building code requirements; and
11) lack of zoning definitions for
specific types of supportive housing,
such as single room occupancy
developments.
In addition, supportive housing tenants
must have access to an array of
supportive services that are often
provided by different agencies with
different eligibility requirements.
Summary of Existing Programs
The State of North Carolina is able to
provide partial funding to develop
supportive housing ( transitional and
permanent supportive housing) through
the NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program. Many times,
this program is used in conjunction with
other federal and state resources, such as
the HUD 811 program and the North
Carolina Division of Mental Health
Community Capacity Funds. The
NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program has relied on the
North Carolina Housing Trust Fund as
its funding source, but is increasingly
using HOME funds.
The State of North Carolina’s Qualified
Allocation Plan requires LIHTC owners
to target 10 percent of the units in their
developments to persons with disabilities
or homeless populations. To support this
commitment, developers partner with
local lead agencies who agree to be the
conduit for tenant referrals and to
provide, coordinate or act as a referral
source for the array of community
services ( both Medicaid and non-
Medicaid funded) available to assist
persons with disabilities to live
successfully in the community.
Furthermore, developers make an
additional 5 percent of the units in their
development fully accessible, on top of
the number of units required by exiting
law and building codes. Accessible
units include a higher than minimum
standard of accessible design features,
including curb less showers and 5’ by 5’
clear floor space around toilets.
The Division of Community Assistance
allocates Community Development
Block Grant ( CDBG) funds for new
43
construction by funding the required
infrastructure for new development.
There are a number of different program
requirements based upon the type of
housing to be constructed. Though DCA
does not offer a category specifically
targeted towards supportive housing,
past projects in the Housing
Development category have been for
supportive housing. Housing
Development funds can be utilized for
multi- family projects aimed at residents
who, for one reason or another, will
continue to rent. DCA will provide for
installation of public infrastructure
( water and sewer lines are automatically
eligible for funding; streets, sidewalks
and drainage may be funded on a case by
case basis), the removal of hazardous
material, acquisition of vacant land ( by
an eligible nonprofit) or vacant historic
buildings ( by an eligible nonprofit or
for- profit developer), and certain
rehabilitation activities on a case- by- case
basis.
In addition, DCA works collaboratively
with the North Carolina Housing
Finance Agency's ( NCHFA) Tax
Credit/ Rental Production Program ( RPP)
for multi- unit rental housing by
providing infrastructure related funds to
some of these development projects.
NCHFA provides funds for home
modifications for the frail and elderly.
For more information on these services,
please see the section on high priority
homeowners.
Expected Units and Funding
It is estimated that North Carolina will
be able to develop a total of 400 units of
supportive housing for non- homeless
persons with special needs using
approximately $ 4 million in HOME and
$ 4 million from the Housing Trust Fund
under the NCHFA Supportive Housing
Development Program during 2006-
2010. Assuming a per- unit cost of
$ 60,000, it is expected that the total
development cost will be $ 24 million
with NCHFA SHDP providing one- third
of the funding.
DCA aims to provide at least $ 2 million
each year for new housing construction
through its Housing Development
program. These funds may be used for
the construction of supportive housing,
though that decision is left up to the
local government and/ or local nonprofits
and developers. There is no set- aside in
the Housing Development program for
supportive housing, so estimating the
number of these housing units that will
be constructed as supportive housing
units is dubious at best. DCA’s goal for
creation of new rental housing units is
detailed in the high, medium, and low
priority renter sections of the strategic
plan.
Operating Assistance
Population and Need
As nonprofit organizations develop more
community- based supportive housing for
persons with disabilities or the low-income
elderly with special needs, the
lack of operating assistance has become
a larger problem. Whether the housing
is transitional or permanent, the central
issue is how the provider can pay for
monthly operating costs while charging
Objective: From 2006- 2010, an
estimated $ 2 million of HOPWA funds
will be used for operating expenses for
dedicated housing facilities.
44
rents affordable to tenants with incomes
below 30 percent of median income.
Many residents rely on Supplemental
Security Income, which currently pays
an individual $ 579 per month. At this
rate an affordable rent for SSI recipients
is $ 173 and yet the typical cost to
operate housing runs about $ 300 per
door per month. Some of the challenges
are as follows:
1) the State of North Carolina does not
supplement SSI payments except for
residents of licensed facilities;
2) SSI payments are not sufficient to
pay the HUD defined fair market
rent for a one bedroom apartment
anywhere in the State;
3) credit and criminal issues make it
difficult for SSI recipients to obtain
public housing or Section 8 vouchers
from the local housing authority;
4) persons diagnosed solely with
substance abuse disorders are not
eligible for SSI; and
5) operating assistance is currently only
available through programs such as
HUD 811 and HUD 202, all of
which fund only a small number of
units each year.
How Activity Meets Need
HOPWA funded operating assistance
provides adult day care/ day health
programs and family care homes with
the financial resources to pay the
operating costs for the day- to- day
program functions serving persons living
with HIV/ AIDS. The availability of
funding for these facilities provides
clients with permanent housing and
access to enhanced services.
Obstacles to Meeting Need with this
Activity
The State of North Carolina provides
operating assistance, State and County
Special Assistance, to residential
facilities that serve persons with
disabilities and the elderly, but only in
licensed facilities.
Many individuals could live more
independently if they had the ability to
pay the difference between their
extremely low income and the cost of
decent housing.
The State HOPWA program funds two
Family Care Homes that provide 24-
hour care for person in the acute stages
of HIV/ AIDS who cannot live
independently, but there are not enough
HOPWA funds to provide assistance to
all interested facilities. There is no
required state match. Based on the
recent competitive HOPWA reques